This year the number of medical school graduates applying for residency programs set a record high

But the number of those choosing pediatrics went down

Already there's a shortage of pediatric specialists in areas like neurology or

pulmonology. That means long waits or long drives for specialized care. We asked you to

tell us about your experiences. Every year you have to take your child for health physical if they want to participate in sports and activities and things like that at school.

And so what we started noticing was that we had to schedule that what that

at school and so what we started noticing was that we had to schedule that well child check earlier and earlier.

The receptionist said I just want to let you know there's a waiting list and it hasn't moved in a year considering

that one of my children is special needs there's things that I have to get

going and me just having to wait that time frame, it doesn't work out for me at all.

We had an emergency happen with my daughter.

It was January 2023.

I found her having a full seizure in her sleep. We showed up at the

emergency room minutes later. Everything went according to plan exactly as you

would want it to in an emergency.

The trouble came when we called the next morning

when we got home to get that neurologist.

And we were told, this was January,

we were told the next available appointment was in April.

My younger child has autism and cognitive delays.

We needed a neuropsych evaluation.

That has an 18 month wait list.

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