The doctor is NOT in, in many emergency rooms across the Valley. It’s something no patient wants to hear when they seek quick help for a health problem.  “I don’t think the population realizes just how dangerous it is to be sick or injured at certain times and certain places,” said Dr. Michael Christopher, head of the Emergency Department at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix. “It’s very tenuous out there.”  One of the biggest problems is a lack of specialists, Christopher said. “That is a huge problem. As an emergency physician, a case can come to me. I can stabilized them, I can treat the pain, I can stop the bleeding, but I need a hand surgeon to take them to the operating room to fix the injury or whatever. And the specific specialist you need is often not available in many of our Emergency Departments.”  The staff shortage is not limited to doctors. “There is a shortage for the nursing staff, there’s a shortage of specialists as well,” said Dr. Tim Johns, medical director of Gilbert Hospital.

He added, however, that, “My contention is that there’s really not a shortage of nurses, there’s a shortage of nurses in hospitals.” Johnson said nurses have so much choice of other areas in which to work, such as home care, private practice and rest homes. Read more