Fed up with the state’s medical malpractice insurance crisis, some New York City doctors are airing televised messages in their waiting rooms that warn patients of a looming physician shortage.

One 60-second spot describes a scarcity of radiologists in the Bronx who are willing to perform mammograms because liability costs are too high. The message aims to change the way patients think about malpractice, doctors said, adding that by airing the advertisements they aim to shore up legislative support, and to inform patients that higher insurance costs could mean they’ll have to pay higher fees.

“I don’t think it’s going to keep anyone from suing, but I think the public has to know where the health care dollars are going,” a Manhattan internist, Dr. Margaret Lewin, said. “My objective is to educate the patient as to what’s going on politically, so if they can join us in making some changes that would be terrific,” Dr. Lewin, who is president of the New York County Medical Society, said.

So far, more than 100 offices in Manhattan and in the Bronx have been outfitted with $4,000, 40-inch television sets that were donated to members of New York’s medical societies by a Long Island company, MedLink International. The company also sells products such as electronic health records.

In July, the New York State Insurance Department increased medical liability costs by 14%, the biggest annual rise since 1993. The move drew immediate outcry from physicians, who said the new premiums — among the highest in the nation — would drive them out of business.

Recognizing the “crisis” on the day the increase was announced, Governor Spitzer appointed a task force headed by the Insurance Superintendent, Eric Dinallo, charged with devising solutions to address the medical malpractice problem in New York. The group includes representatives from physician organizations, consumer groups, and trial lawyer organizations.

Members of the task force interviewed in recent weeks said the group has met several times, and that a range of ideas, including limited liability for obstetrics, has been discussed. The group is expected to report to Mr. Spitzer by the end of the year.

With no clear consensus on the issue yet, doctors are taking the issue straight to their patients.

“We want patients to begin to think about the potential in the future for them, that their physician may not be able to afford to be in practice,” the president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, Dr. Robert Goldberg, said.

The doctor of osteopathic medicine said he has several colleagues who are no longer able to afford their insurance premiums. “This is very real,” he said. “There are ramifications to the frequency and severity of these lawsuits,” he said. “One of them is, will there be a doctor to take care of you?”

In one public service announcement, which was adapted from a news broadcast in Oregon, a woman is forced to drive several hours to see an obstetrician because of a shortage of doctors in her town.

In addition to other programming — such as health-related news, general news, entertainment, and sports — the malpractice spots run about once every half hour. “You’re pretty much guaranteed that you’ll see that ad running,” MedLink’s president, Ray Vuono, said.

Veteran marketing executives said doctors’ offices are ideal for advertising.

“Every marketer has always believed, whether they are in the pharmaceutical field or not, that the doctor has a great captive audience,” the president and chief executive officer of Connors Communications, Connie Connors, said. “The concept is, you sit there for an hour or whatnot.”

That is why pharmaceutical companies began distributing brochures to doctors’ offices starting in the 1970s, and why some physicians now advertise their own services and products in the waiting room, she said. Still, she noted, a divisive issue “could ostracize” patients.

Anecdotally, physicians said colleagues are closing their practices, as they predicted they would this summer.

After the insurance hike, one Manhattan gynecologist, Dr. Andrew Steiber, shuttered his obstetrics practice after 30 years. “I had no choice,” he said. “Your bill comes, it’s $140,000, and you can’t increase the amount you’re charging the patients, so you’re stuck.”

Dr. Steiber said several of his colleagues have also stopped delivering babies. “We’re at the point of a disaster,” he said, adding that without tort reform, the situation would worsen.

Even Dr. Lewin, whose practice is intact, became distraught when her annual liability premium increased to $25,000 this past summer. “I literally sat down and cried,” she said.