Slots for primary-care training, including family medicine, pediatrics, and internal medicine, also increased by 877 positions this year, offering up to 20,300 positions for the nation. This seems like promising news for a city like Boston, where the wait for a new patient to access primary care is at least 40 days, twice as long as in 15 other studied cities, and up to half of the primary-care workforce is close to retiring age. The most recent primary-care dashboard from Massachusetts Health Quality Partners, a measurement and reporting nonprofit organization, shows that these shortages are driving up visits to emergency departments, spiking Massachusetts’ total cost on health care, and disproportionately affecting low-income people and people of color, further aggravating our state’s health inequities.

The small increase in slots to train future primary-care physicians nationally will not come close to fixing our primary-care crisis in Massachusetts, however. In a state that has more physicians per capita than any other in the United States, only 22 percent of Massachusetts medical school graduates were providing primary care six to eight years later, as of 2023.

Further, not all primary-care training programs are equal in terms of generating practicing primary-care physicians. According to a recent study, 97 percent of family-medicine residents conclude their training in primary care, whereas only 54 percent of pediatric residents and 35 percent of internal medicine residents conclude their training in primary care. In other words, the vast majority of new primary-care physicians in the United States are family-medicine physicians. Given the robust training of family-medicine physicians, including caring for prenatal, postpartum, pediatric, adult, and geriatric patients, this workforce is crucial.

However, while 13.4 percent of first-year residency positions were in family medicine nationally, Massachusetts only provides 3.9 percent of its first-year residency slots in family medicine. Given that studies show the vast majority (68.7 percent) of family-medicine graduates continue to work in the state where they trained after graduation, this anemic number is a poor harbinger for our future.

A significant barrier to training more family-medicine physicians is the lack of academic medical support. Apart from Boston Medical Center, there are no family-medicine departments in Boston’s academic medical centers, where the majority of graduate medical education occurs. The rationale often cited is that it is the responsibility of community-based institutions to train future primary-care and family-medicine doctors. However, it is exceedingly difficult for community-based hospitals and community health centers to take on this responsibility with already tight profit margins, a lack of internal infrastructure to support residency programs, and traditional residency program funding flowing to academic medical centers.

If Massachusetts wants to have adequate access to primary-care physicians, it needs to prioritize and organize state-level partnerships between large academic institutions and community-based institutions, particularly community health centers, to develop infrastructure and funding for new family-medicine residency programs. Academic medical centers must include investments in developing family medicine as part of their larger primary-care investment plans. Legislators must also reinstitute Medicaid Graduate Medical Education funding in Massachusetts that is targeted to support family-medicine training programs. Currently, Massachusetts is one of only seven states that does not fund residency programs through this program.

Furthermore, to attract more motivated and capable medical students to enter the field of family medicine, health care leaders, educators, and policy makers must work to make the job more sustainable. This includes actions such as statewide policies increasing reimbursements for family-medicine services from all payers, streamlining the number of health care metrics family-medicine physicians are accountable for, and reducing the administrative burden of family-medicine physicians by accelerating the use of AI to complete forms for items such as durable medical equipment, prior authorizations, and messages generated through electronic medical systems.

We are grateful to Governor Maura Healey for her recent remarks on prioritizing primary care; to the Legislature for the development of the Primary Care Task Force, which will focus on primary care access, delivery, and financial sustainability; and to the recent Massachusetts legislative hearings on Senator Cindy Friedman’s Primary Care for You bill. However, we cannot wait for the group’s recommendations to start addressing our state’s primary-care crisis. Legislators, payers, hospitals, and community health centers must work now to strengthen and grow the family-medicine workforce, build a stronger pipeline, and pay for a health care system that will build a healthier Commonwealth.

An unusual May nor’easter was pulling away from New England on Friday after soaking the region, setting some record cold temperatures, and downing trees in several towns including Malden and Brookline.

Massachusetts and Rhode Island received the most rain, getting at least several inches. The coastal town of Kingston, Massachusetts, received 7.13 inches of rain in a 24-hour period ending early Friday, the National Weather Service said.

Drivers were stuck in floodwaters in Cape Cod and fallen trees blocked some streets. There were no reports of injuries.

Some higher elevations saw snow, with New Hampshire’s Mount Washington reporting 3.4 inches as of Friday morning.

“Would it really be May in Maine without a little rain — and even a touch of snow — for Memorial Day Weekend?” Sugarloaf Mountain posted online. It delayed opening day for its golf club from Friday to Sunday.

It was cold and blustery on the eve of Memorial Day weekend in Boston, but locals across Massachusetts were taking it in stride. “That’s New England,” one man said. “You’ve gotta live with it, you’ve gotta love it.”

Hear from them and get a closer look at when the rain is expected to let up, plus the impact on holiday weekend travel. 

High temperatures for Thursday were about 20 degrees lower than usual.

At least two cities — Concord, New Hampshire, and Portland, Maine — had record cold high temperatures. In Concord, it reached 47 degrees Fahrenheit for Thursday. That broke the previous record on that date of 51 degrees set in 1939. Portland got up to 49 degrees, breaking the 50-degree record set in 2011.

A nor’easter is an East Coast storm that is so named because winds over the coastal area are typically from the northeast, according to the weather service. They usually arrive in the end of fall and winter and bring high winds, rough seas and precipitation in the form of rain or snow. It’s rare to see them in May.

19-year-olds can now be correctional officers, the state’s Department Correction announced Thursday, citing a need for more long-term, motivated candidates.

The age was lowered from 21 to 19, following in the footsteps of the Essex County Sheriff’s Department, which lowered its age requirements for correctional officers in 2023. At the time, the department said there was a “critical shortage of officers.”

The Massachusetts Department of Correction said officers under the age of 21 won’t be assigned to posts or duties that require a firearm, but “any individuals hired for the position must maintain eligibility to obtain a license to carry a firearm.”

“The implementation of this age of appointment gives the DOC the flexibility to bring in more qualified applicants while providing them with early access to a fulfilling career in corrections,” DOC Commissioner Shawn Jenkins said in a statement. 

The department, which staffs 13 facilities across the state, said the change allows young adults to explore long-term careers and serve their communities. 

“Reducing the minimum age to become a Correction Officer will allow us to recruit more dedicated, highly skilled workers to these important roles,” Governor Maura Healey said in a statement. “This change will help us build the next generation of corrections professionals to deliver on our goals of protecting public safety and supporting rehabilitation.”

The eligibility requirements to be a correction officer, some of whom earn more than $250,000 a year, include a high school diploma, an equivalency certificate or at least three years in the Armed Forces as well as a “comprehensive screening process” and a 12-week training program.

The Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union has previously called attention to staffing and other issues at prisons, including the state’s only maximum-security prison. Last fall, five officers were injured by inmates in a single incident, and the MCOFU criticized the department’s lack of searches and use of tactical units.

“How much more do our members have to endure before you decide to keep them safe? The inmates are literally running the asylum. Do your jobs,” the union wrote on Facebook at the time.

In a statement about lowering the age requirements, Jenkins thanked the union for their “support.”

“The Massachusetts Department of Correction appreciates working collaboratively with Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union and their support as we work together to increase our professional workforce,” Jenkins said.

Molly Farrar is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime, and more.