National Health Service Corps and primary care training. A mutually beneficial plan affecting physician maldistribution

Abstract

The National Health Service Corps (NHSC), established by passage of the Emergency Health Personnel Act of 1970, was set up to provide for the redistribution of medical personnel to communities with critical health manpower shortages. Three years later, only 4% of the 5,000 "underserved" areas have received physicians; dentists and allied personnel are still missing. Further inadequacies of the Corps are demonstrated by the substantial decline in physical applicants paralleling the end of the doctor draft and Vietnam War. To reawaken physician interest, the NHSC seeks new financial benefits to replace the defunct military fulfillment incentive. Such artificial benefits have previously proven inadequate as incentives for effecting enlistment in underserved areas. Furthermore, most physicians will no longer be available for service commitments during training because of the continuity established by the combined internship-residency. Instead we propose that establishment of a working relationship between primary care training programs and NHSC has substantive value in solving problems plaguing both groups, as well as helping to improve physician distribution nationally. (<i>JAMA</i>228:1405-1407, 1974).