As president of the New Mexico Medical Society, a private-practice gastroenterologist in Albuquerque and a lifelong New Mexican, I have seen firsthand the growing difficulty of recruiting and retaining physicians in our state.

My roots run deep here, but every day I witness the painful reality patients face: limited and delayed access to medical care. When patients cannot see a doctor for months or must leave the state for specialty care, that is an injustice.

New Mexico has excellent doctors — just not enough of them. Patients wait months, sometimes years, for appointments. We rank near the bottom nationally in physicians per capita, and rural communities struggle even more to find basic care.