State Oversupplied With Physicians, Study Finds

California has a growing oversupply of physicians, including twice as many plastic surgeons and cardiologists as it needs, the California Medical Assn. said Monday.

A group’s report also cited a rapid growth in the number of female physicians and foreign medical graduates in the state. Women represented 12.9% of California’s physicians at last count--up by more than 5% in eight years--while the number of foreign-educated doctors has nearly doubled.

In 1983, at the end of the latest reporting period, there was one physician for every 425 residents in the state, a ratio more than 20% higher than that of the nation, according to the report.

Ideally, there should be one physician for about every 536 residents, or 186.7 per 100,000, according to criteria developed by a federal panel a decade ago.

By comparison, based on the most recent figures available, there was one physician for every 505 residents in the United States as a whole.

In addition to the large numbers of plastic surgeons and heart specialists, the state’s supplies of pulmonologists and neurosurgeons exceed federal guidelines by more than half. All surgical specialties are oversupplied by 34% when measured against the standards.

San Francisco leads the state, with one physician for every 159 residents, or 629 per 100,000--more than three times the amount deemed necessary. The counties of Marin (398 per 100,000) and Napa (301 per 100,000) are next in the doctor-residents ratio, while the more rural counties of San Benito (60), Glenn (53) and Modoc (32) have the fewest physicians per capita.

The association predicted that the number of female physicians would rise, noting that nearly one in four of the physicians under age 35 is a woman, and one-third of medical school students are now women.