San Joaquin Valley needs more doctors. New medical schools are years away

California’s San Joaquin Valley needs more doctors.

The roughly 250-mile region, stretching from Stockton to Bakersfield, has about 200 physicians per 10,000 residents, according to the California Healthcare Foundation. In the Bay Area, that ratio is more than twice as high. Medical schools are almost non-existent too —  with not a single standalone program offering a doctorate of medicine, or M.D., in the entire region of 4.3 million people.