If you start sniffling and sneezing, there’s a decent chance you can see a doctor this week in the Birmingham area. But if your arthritis flares up or if you’re dealing with depression, it might be months before someone can get you on their calendar.

Dr. Anupam Agarwal, UAB’s Senior Vice President of Medicine and Dean of UAB’s Heersink School of Medicine, said these long wait times can be attributed to a national physician shortage that has impacted everything from primary care to mental health for the last several years.

“Data from the Robert Grant [Naval Medical Research] Center says we need 612 primary care physicians [to meet patient needs], and this is not the Birmingham this is for the entire state,” Agarwal said. “So, you can just imagine how that shortage of primary care doctors would overburden our healthcare systems, whether it’s our clinics, our emergency rooms, and so on… Whatever happens nationally, is so much more pronounced for our state.”

While there are currently 39 primary care physicians within 10 miles of Birmingham who are accepting new patients (according to physician search portal Healthgrades.com), some don’t have openings until November or December. Depending on who can accept your insurance, this may leave non-emergency patients without primary care for a month or more.

If you are looking for a specialist, your chances of seeing someone before 2024 continue to dwindle. Rheumatologists (specialists for joint and musculoskeletal diseases like arthritis) and urologists (specialists for urinary tract and male reproductive system) are two of the most difficult specialists to get an appointment within the metro area, with most not accepting new patients until next year according to Healthgrades.