The extraordinary call from the Ministry of Health to fill vacant MIR positions in 2024 has allowed 227 vacant positions to be awarded. 213, the majority, belong to the specialty of Family Medicine; 12 to Preventive Medicine and Public Health and two to Occupational Medicine.
The call has alleviated the high number of vacancies but the result is still a record: 246 positions for Primary Care doctors are left without an owner compared to the 131 deserted in 2023 after the last-minute ‘play-off’.
The specialty of Family Medicine is the largest in number of places. This year it offered 2,492, of which 90% have been covered. That is, one in ten of those offered is left without a doctor in training. In the short term, this situation leaves health centers without apprentices, but in the medium term, that is, in the next five years, it impacts the pending generational change in healthcare, highlights María José Gamero, from the Spanish Society of Primary Care Physicians. . There are 246 new specialists who will never exist because the system resources to train them will not be used.
3,460 people have been invited to the session to distribute these places, according to official data from the Ministry of Health. Of them, only 250 have processed their application, 7% of those who were called. The majority, 228, belong to the quota of non-EU doctors.
Vacancies in 10 communities
The deserted squares are distributed across ten autonomous communities. The Health report includes unfilled positions in Andalusia (39), Aragón (17), Castilla y León (47), Catalunya (22), Extremadura (49), Galicia (42), Balearic Islands (10), La Rioja ( 9), Navarra (7) and Asturias (4). Among the most seriously affected points is Miranda de Ebro, which offered 11 places and has not awarded any. Or Soria, with 11 vacancies of the 15 offered.
“If we do the same thing, it is normal that we have the same result. Or worse, as has happened,” criticized the president of the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG), who has the feeling that what is examined each year “is the specialty.” “This tension is not fair because this is not the failure of Family Medicine but of the health and distribution system for access to the different specialties,” says Pilar Rodríguez Ledo.
The medical societies that bring together specialists in this branch, such as SEMG, SEMERGEN or SEMFYC, emphasize that 2,246 people have chosen Family and Community Medicine compared to the 508 who have chosen Pediatrics or the 124 whose choice has been Dermatology. The difference in offer compared to other specialties is abysmal because the system rests on the basis of Primary Care; on the health centers and clinics scattered throughout the territory.
With this extraordinary call, MIR 2024 is closed, which has concluded with the awarding of 8,522 places, 97% of those offered. Starting in May, 8,522 professionals will begin their five-year training in hospitals and health centers throughout Spain.
Views of Yuly Jara.
Source: www.eldiario.es
