More than 30,000 applicants will compete this Saturday for the 11,607 places in Specialized Health Training (FSE), the largest offer approved by the Ministry of Health, in a context of lack of professionals in certain specialties, especially Medicine and Family and Community Nursing, two chapters that bring together almost a third of the positions in competition.
Starting at four in the afternoon, in 28 cities across the country, those who will be the specialists of the 2030s will begin to answer, for four and a half hours, the 200 questions (plus 10 in reserve) on which it depends its future and the future of the health system.
Each question consists of four possible answers, one of them valid. Each correct answer will receive a score of three points, one point will be subtracted for each of the incorrect answers and unanswered questions will be left unassessed.
The health system is becoming feminized by leaps and bounds. 74.22% of the 30,066 admitted to the tests are women. The female sex prevails among applicants for training places in Nursing, with 88.19%, but also in Medicine, with two out of three candidates. In fact, among the seven areas of the FSE, only in Physics there is a male majority (57%) among those admitted.
The call offers 11,607 places, 5% more (436 more) than last year. Medicine takes the largest part of the pie (8,772) and is the one with the greatest possibilities of success, with 13,990 called. Behind, the Nursing degree seeks 2,108 professionals among 9,010 applicants; Pharmacy (340 places for 1,559 examinees), Psychology (247 for 3,850), Biology (65 for 1,071), Physics (48 for 305) and Chemistry, with 27 training places for 279 candidates. A quota of 812 places is reserved for people with disabilities and others for 551 non-EU citizens.
The procedure is clearly aimed at strengthening primary care, the level of access to public health and the most deficient in terms of professionals. Thus, 2,492 places are offered in Family and Community Medicine and 891 in Family and Community Nursing.
In the two previous calls there were vacancies in the positions of internal resident doctor (MIR) in Family Medicine. That is, doctors with the approved exam chose to wait for the next FSE exams or look for other professional alternatives rather than going to an outpatient clinic. The extraordinary workload, increased by bureaucratic tasks, and the lack of recognition scare away recent graduates.
In the last two editions Dermatology was the preferred MIR specialty. Last year the places were sold out in two days and candidate number 718 was the last to be eligible for it. In this edition, 123 positions are offered. Another of the most coveted specialties in previous years is Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery, for which 55 vacancies are now offered.
The test will be held in 28 capitals of all the autonomous communities. Madrid (5,789), Barcelona (2,924) and Valencia (2,503) are the ones with the most candidates called. In Logroño (207) or Cáceres (285) the exam will be held almost as a family.
More than 2,000 people will ensure the development of the call as center delegates, auditors and members of the exam tables or as members of the seven qualifying commissions.
The provisional results will be published at the end of February, one month after the tests, and the official grades will be announced at the end of March. At the end of April, the places allocation events will take place.
