This year’s proposed state budget from Governor Gavin Newsom was bad news across the board. A colossal $45 billion state budget deficit led to proposals for dozens of severe budget cuts to critical healthcare services. This initially included cuts of $10 million from the Song-Brown Program and severely decreased the underlying funding for the CalMedForce program. These programs aim to increase the number of residents training in primary care and medically underserved areas throughout California, including here in San Joaquin County.

Song-Brown and CalMedForce are cornerstones of our state’s efforts to ensure that all Californians have access to high-quality medical care. By providing essential funding for residency training, the program supports the training and development of family and internal medicine physicians who are on the front lines of healthcare delivery, especially in underserved areas.

Here in San Joaquin County, San Joaquin General Hospital (SJGH) has been training residents since 1972 and has trained more than 3,900 physicians. The program has a long history of graduating physicians who go on to work with underserved patients throughout this County, the Central Valley, and California at large.

Despite this long track record of service that leads to direct improvement in the health of our community, this essential program’s ability is hampered by federal rules that guide payment for residency positions. In such cases, the only way to continue or expand residency training is through funding programs like Song-Brown and CalMedForce.

For the last six years, the SJGH Family Medicine and Internal Medicine residency programs have received enough funding to continue training more than 50% and 25% of their resident physicians, respectively. The drastic cuts proposed in the current budget will directly and immediately impact this program’s ability to continue providing services within San Joaquin County while also contributing to the already severe physician shortage faced by our communities.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of a robust physician workforce has never been more evident. Primary care physicians have played a pivotal role in managing the pandemic, providing critical services, and maintaining the overall health of our population. Cutting funding to the Song-Brown and CalMedForce programs at this juncture would undermine our efforts to build a resilient healthcare system capable of responding to current and future public health challenges.

These programs are also instrumental in fostering diversity in medicine. By supporting training programs in underserved and rural areas, they encourage physician diversity in communities where they are most needed. This not only improves healthcare access but also enhances our healthcare workforce’s cultural competence and sensitivity.

While the Song-Brown funding has been preserved for this upcoming fiscal year due to advocacy efforts, the future of this program remains at risk; CalMedForce funding continues to be at immediate risk with the new fiscal year, according to the draft budget. These proposed cuts jeopardize the stability and sustainability of residency programs across California. It would lead to fewer residency positions, reduced training opportunities, and a smaller physician workforce today and in the future.

San Joaquin County residents can help by telling the Governor and the legislature to keep this critical funding in the 2024-2025 budget and beyond with a few simple steps:

1. Contact Governor Newsom with this simple message: “Please preserve all Song Brown and CalMedForce funding in the 2024-2025 budget and the long term. San Joaquin County residents need a diverse and robust healthcare workforce to meet the needs of our communities both now and in the future.”

2. Contact your legislators with the same message! You can find contact info for your legislators at: Find Address (ca.gov)

3. Post on social media platforms, tagging @GavinNewsom and @CalLeg.

4. Recruit your friends and colleagues to stop these cuts.

Richard Castro is the Chief Executive Officer of San Joaquin General Hospital. Lauren Brown-Berchtold, M.D., is the Program Director of the San Joaquin General Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Urge Gov. Newsom to reject budget cuts to physician programs