Background and Objective:
Medical doctors (md) shortage is one of the most importants difficulties for ensuring access to quality health care. In brazil, the public health system faces major challenges in retaining medical professionals, notably in specialties associated with diseases that cause more hospitalizations and deaths. The competition presented by the private health sector is one of the main factors for this. The objective of this study is to describe the distribution and availability of mds and their specialties in the state of rio de janeiro (srj), brazil.

Methods:
Open data, from 2020, provided by the brazilian government was used to calculate the ratio of number of doctors, doctors in public system and in strategic specialties, by inhabitants of municipalities and health regions in the srj. Also, linear regression charts were created associating these data with the following related variables: population size, gross domestic product per capita, population coverage of private health insurance and availability of hospital beds.

Results:
The distribution of mds showed great inequality. The number of professionals in many specialties proved insufficient. There are blanks of mds across the state, notably in specialties related to oncological treatment. The variable that showed highest positive linear correlation with the ratio of mds was coverage of private health insurance. Mds in brazil use to work both in the public as well as the private sectors, the correlation suggests strong influence of the private market.

Conclusion:
Improvement of universal health services depends on overcoming shortage of mds. The lack of specialists generates long queues and displacements of populations in search of services. The presence of the private sector seems to be the greatest factor to explain the availability of physicians. State regulation of medical workforce, formation of specialists, and policy incentives for professional allocation seems to be important to overcome shortcomings.