Hospital doctors shut doors to new patients

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff November 12, 2006
Most primary care physicians at Boston's top-tier teaching hospitals are so busy that they have officially closed their practices to new patients.

Callers to Massachusetts General Hospital's physician referral line, for example, are told that all, or almost all, of the hospital's 178 primary care physicians are not accepting more patients. All 42 internists at Boston Medical Center have had full lists since four months ago, and 108 of Brigham and Women's Hospital's 120 primary care doctors have closed their practices to new patients. Read more...