2027 is turning point. That year there will be a global deficit of about 9,000 doctors in Spain, which is mainly due to the lack of professionals in Family and Community Medicine. Says a report entitled “Need for Medical Specialists 2021-2035” managed by the Ministry of Health and is the argument used by the rector of the University of Alicante (UA), Amparo Navarro, to justify the need to implement the Medicine career in Alicante.
Navarro explained yesterday that the UA has obtained an extra financing of close to one million euros (939,501) from the Plan to promote the improvement of the Degree in Medicine financed by the Ministry of Health. The University has applied to the program, expanding by 15% the places initially planned for the new studies, which will begin to be taught during the 2023-24 academic year. This percentage is the one requested by the Ministry of Health to meet the need for doctors. Therefore, the UA will start the studies of Medicine offering 86 places, 11 more than those initially planned.
The aforementioned government Plan “arises from the lack of specialist doctors” evidenced through the aforementioned report. With the aim of reversing this situation, the Government plans to invest 52 million euros to create a total of 706 new positions, about 9% more than those initially offered throughout the national public system.
According to the survey that accompanies the report on the need for specialists, more than 60% of the professionals surveyed consider that the specialties of Primary Care (83.6%), Anesthesiology and Resuscitation (76.3%), Geriatrics (75%) , Psychiatry (67.3%) and Radiodiagnosis (63.0%) currently suffer the greatest shortage of physicians.
At the other extreme, Clinical Analysis and Biochemistry (28.8%), Cardiovascular Surgery (27.8%), Internal Medicine (27.1%), Thoracic Surgery (18.9%) and Obstetrics and Gynecology (18%). they are the specialties to which experts allocate a surplus of current resources.
The five specialties that receive the greatest consensus that at present they have a number of specialists that may be in balance with respect to current demand or need are: General Surgery and Digestive System, which almost 77% of those surveyed considers that the offer is balanced, Angiology and Vascular Surgery (74.1%), Otolaryngology (73.3%) and Nephrology (71.7%).
Navarro stressed that the starting point of this additional funding provided by the government is to assume up to 15% of the estimated cost of 15,000 euros per place and academic year.
The rector also informed that the tender for the “Modular Laboratory Building for Health Sciences” is already underway, which will house the facilities of the Anatomy Classroom, with a room for preparing parts and cadavers and two osteotheques with which service to students both for the new degree in Medicine and for others already consolidated such as Nursing, Criminology, Biology or Biomedical Engineering.
