None of the lawmakers were available for comment on Monday.<\/p>\n
At the legislative briefing, the doctors said they plan to explain that it\u2019s important for MGB to recognize the union and to begin contract talks because doctors are burning out and need better working conditions, pay, and benefits. They also intend to ask lawmakers to sign a petition pressing MGB to drop its appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cMGB is not going to come to the table on their own, so we\u2019re going to other stakeholders to make the case that we think this [union] is in everybody\u2019s best interest,\u201d said Barnett, a primary care doctor at Brigham.<\/p>\n
Barnett noted that state officials and MGB itself have acknowledged that there is a shortage of primary care clinicians in Massachusetts, as there is elsewhere in the country.<\/p>\n
Four in 10 Massachusetts residents reported difficulty accessing primary care, according to a study by the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission last January<\/a>. Wait times for a new patient appointment in Boston stretched to 40 days \u2014 twice the average of 15 other cities studied. Governor Maura Healey, in her State of the Commonwealth address<\/a> last year, mentioned the dire state of primary care, and said she would earmark resources to address it.<\/p>\n Among the many woes identified by the Health Policy Commission: physicians struggling with overwhelming workloads; an aging and burned-out workforce; short-staffed practices; and a meager pipeline of new clinicians.<\/p>\n The situation is unlikely to improve any time soon. Over the next decade, the number of primary care physicians in Massachusetts is expected to rise by less than 4 percent, to 7,940<\/a>, according to workforce data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n Economics helps explain the anemic growth. A newly minted doctor can graduate from medical school with easily over $200,000 in debt. To pay it off, many opt to become specialists, who typically earn much more than primary care doctors.<\/p>\n At MGB, primary care doctors say they are also grappling with upheaval at their health system. In particular, they say, MGB\u2019s ongoing effort to merge its two flagship Harvard-affiliated medical centers<\/a> has left them without a voice in health care policy decisions.<\/p>\n Tseng says that Brigham in 2023 abruptly closed the Newton medical practice she had worked in for a decade. Tseng, who subsequently moved to a Brigham clinic in the Longwood Medical Area, said she had no say in the matter.<\/p>\n Tseng said she believes the union would give her greater say in how she practices primary care at MGB as well as better pay and benefits and a more manageable work schedule. <\/p>\n She currently has about 1,000 patients whom she treats in a year. She sees patients for roughly 20 hours a week, making her technically a part-time physician. In fact, she actually works close to 50 to 60 hours a week \u2014 sometimes late into the night at home \u2014 because of all her administrative work. Those duties include checking lab test results, communicating with patients on the phone or on the patient portal, calling in prescriptions, and dealing with insurers, she said.<\/p>\n She said she would \u201clike to see a more reasonable work week and not feel I have to run, after putting my kids to bed, back to work.\u201d <\/p>\n MGB has repeatedly said that it recognizes the crisis in primary care and is taking steps to address it. Last May, after primary care doctors began a weeks-long vote on the union, MGB pledged to invest nearly $400 million over the next five years to enhance primary care.<\/p>\n![\"Primary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/66F6EGM3L5YNOLHQECBWC5FOSY.jpg\")
Primary care doctors from Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospital picketed in 2024. David L. Ryan\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n