Welcome to the Hub City, where we proudly brand ourselves as the premier medical oasis of West Texas right up until you actually need to see a doctor. In the latest episode of local institutional dysfunction, Dr. Amber Coon—an OB-GYN who spent twelve years delivering babies here—blew up Lubbock Facebook after announcing her departure from UMC Physicians. She and Dr. Amy Richards, the only two hospital-employed OB-GYNs in the UMC system, effectively found themselves squeezed out because Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) controls hospital credentialing and apparently views non-academic physicians the way a corner store views a new convenience store opening across the street.
TTUHSC’s grand compromise was offering to absorb the doctors into their academic machine, where physicians work 24-hour on-call shifts and deliver whatever patient happens to arrive—a baby-roulette system great for resident training, but an absolute nightmare for patients who actually want to know the person delivering their child. When Dr. Coon declined, UMC tried to recruit replacements, only for TTUHSC to slam the door on clinical appointments. Both institutions then retreated to their corporate bunkers to release dueling PR statements about how deeply they “care about expanding access,” all while systematically ensuring fewer doctors are available to treat patients.
Meanwhile, pregnant women in Lubbock are left frantically dialing down local directory listings only to be told the next available opening is somewhere around next summer. If you are 24 weeks pregnant with high-risk complications, your current medical options consist of praying your baby respects hospital credentialing bylaws or turning to overwhelmed local midwives. In classic Lubbock fashion, residents are now so desperate that community advocates are begging Austin politicians—including Ken Paxton and Greg Abbott—to dissect medical district local laws and hospital contracts to force grown executives to share their toys.
When the prevailing maternal healthcare plan in a regional medical capital is “call the Texas Attorney General and hope for a miracle,” you have to ask: is Lubbock actually trying to fix the doctor shortage, or are our healthcare titans just hoping the tumbleweeds deliver the next generation?
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