There's a big disparity in the number of Latino doctors and surgeons. Advocates are working to change that.
The very first National Latino/a Physician Day takes place Oct. 1, as advocates raise awareness of the relatively small number of Latino doctors and surgeons.
On the very first National Latino/a Physician Day, which takes place Saturday, advocates are working to raise awareness of the relatively small number of Latino physicians and surgeons there are in the United States amid growing health care needs and disparities in the community.
"For the last 40 years, the number of Latino physicians has not changed. That's a failure," Dr. Cesar Padilla, one of the organizers of the campaign and a clinical assistant professor at Stanford's University School of Medicine, told NBC News.
Latinos account for 7% of the overall physician and surgeon workforce and 9% of all health care practitioners and technicians, according to a recent Pew Research Center analysis. Meanwhile, almost 1 in 5 Americans, 62.6 million, are Latino, according to the latest 2020 census numbers, a 23% increase from 2010.
"There was urgency to increase the number of Latino physicians in the United States before Covid. It’s a crisis now,” Padilla added, noting the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on the Latino community.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows Latinos are 1.5 times more likely to test positive for Covid-19, twice as likely to be hospitalized and 1.8 times more likely to die from the virus than their white counterparts. In total, so far Latinos made up 17.1% of all Covid-related deaths and 24.6% of all cases.
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