Patients face losing access to medical care as a malpractice-insurance crisis spreads across the nation, the president-elect of the American Medical Assn. warned Thursday.

The crisis was underscored this week, when almost all surgeries at four West Virginia hospitals were canceled as a protest against high rates. While Dr. Donald Palmisano said he doubted similar actions would become widespread across the country, the association’s chief said soaring insurance costs were reducing physician availability to patients.

“There’s a crisis in 12 states now and the situation is serious in 30 others,” said Palmisano, who is a lawyer as well as a physician. “The cost of medical malpractice insurance has become so burdensome that some physicians are moving to other states where they can afford to practice.

“Physicians are retiring early because they can’t afford the insurance. Patients will find it increasingly difficult to find a physician to treat them.”

Meanwhile, in West Virginia, state officials scrambled Thursday to adjust to the work stoppage by more than two dozen surgeons in the state’s northern panhandle.

Four hospitals in the Wheeling area cut staff hours and transferred more patients Thursday in response to the doctors’ protest. State officials also announced emergency measures to ensure medical service to patients.

The doctors, pointing to rapidly rising medical malpractice-insurance premiums, want the state legislature to make it more difficult for people to file malpractice claims. They also want the state to pay a larger share of the doctors’ insurance costs.