CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — 3NEWS has reported on a shortage of doctors in several specialties throughout the area.
There are several reasons including a smaller income range, lack of amenities and entertainment, among others that seem to be keeping them away.
According to a survey, one of the main reasons is the lack of professional, well paying jobs for their spouses.
We talked with Colby Callahan who's wife is a doctor and did her residency training in Corpus Christi. They lived here for three years, but decided not to stay.
"We did not stay in Corpus Christi because my job was in the Austin area," Callahan said. "I work in the semiconductor industry and in June 2020 I fully expected to not have my job anymore because we were moving away."
Since he wasn't able to find a comparable job to the one he had in Austin, they felt they had no choice but to return to the state's capital.
"I could move into something like manufacturing, some kind of mass manufacturing plant," Callahan said. "There really is not that kind of a job market down there, it's mostly oil and gas."
Last year, the Nueces County Medical Society conducted survey asking doctors why it was hard to attract and keep them in the Coastal Bend. Many doctor's said their spouses, who were also professionals in their field couldn't find a comparable job.
Dr. Karl Serrao is on the board of the Nueces County Medical Society.
"We are competing with obviously the bigger cities in Texas, so of course it's the San Antonio, Houston, Austin to Dallas," Serrao said.
Among the results of the survey, a lack of opportunity for doctor's spouses was cited.
Those income opportunities were highlighted in data from the workforce solutions of the Coastal Bend.
These are average salary comparisons between three major metropolitan areas in Texas versus the Coastal Bend.
In the Information Technologies industry, pay ranges from more than $149,000 thousand in the Dallas area to around $90,000 here.
In real estate, the average salary goes from around $100,000 to just over $80,000 here.
The same goes for finance and insurance, around $141,000 in the Dallas area to almost 90,000 here.
And utility industries as well, up to $178,000 compared to around $147,000 here.
"At least inviting other industries, getting a more diverse job market there in Corpus that could promote the spousal opportunities or opportunities for anybody really," he said.
Now there are a number of groups locally, including CHRISTUS Spohn, who are working to attract more doctors to our area. We spoke to our local Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Al Arreola, and he said it's factors like these that highlight how important it is that we continue to improve the quality of life in the city for continued growth.
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