Can UNC’s future medical school help fix Colorado’s doctor shortage?

In The NOCO

Patients in Colorado feel the brunt of a growing healthcare crisis every day. Most Colorado counties have a shortage of primary care doctors and other healthcare workers – and that has an outsized impact on low-income and rural communities.

And that shortage is projected to get even worse as physicians near retirement age. About a third of doctors in the state are 60 or older, according to a recent report from the American Association of Medical Colleges.

On May 1, Gov. Jared Polis signed legislation to help address the shortfall. A new medical school – just the third one in Colorado – will open in 2026 at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. The new College of Osteopathic Medicine has a price tag of around $200 million, and will eventually graduate 150 new doctors each year.

The college's first dean, Dr. Beth Longenecker, joined In The NoCo to discuss how the new school will make a dent in a statewide and national shortage of doctors.