“Neither the Ministry of Health nor Sacyl have planned” to hire new non-EU doctors without an approved degree, despite the lack of Family and Community Medicine professionals. The Law allows it, and it is being a shortcut in the country as a whole to alleviate the difficulties of the health systems to cover vacancies in deficient specialties, as is the case with Primary Care physicians, but Sacyl’s will is that these professionals, with the general degree in Medicine, are incorporated with the homologation.
In fact, Sacyl does not close the door to any country, both in Primary and in Specialized, where the route is much more complex, for which it even has a unit to advance the procedure established by law and speed up possible contracts in a process that “is not difficult at all”, as explained to Ical by the Deputy Minister of Health Care, Planning and Health Results, Jesús García-Cruces.
What’s more, these doctors, many of them from Latin America and attached to rural areas, are a solution when the lack of doctors is making a dent in the territory, especially in the towns, with clinics that doctors did not come to this summer. professionals, due to the summer contingencies of vacations and permits, increased by the COVID casualties, and that in some areas forced the Ministry to resort to transportation on demand and to transfer patients to other towns in July and August.
The worst is yet to come, since it is expected that the lack of these professionals will last for at least another five years and it will not be until 2027 when the number of doctors who retire or leave the system can begin to be balanced with those who enter new ones. . In fact, it is estimated that in five years 60% of Family doctors in Castilla y León will retire, and if measures are not taken, with the current situation there will be no remedy: if all the residents who finish their training period remain in the Community, they would only cover 60 percent of these pensions, and the reality is that only 30 percent remain.
At this time, in Castilla y León there are 116 non-EU citizens working without an approved degree in Family and Community Medicine who carry out their duties in health centers and local clinics of the different Sacyl departments. There are three more than in January 2021, according to the written response of the Minister of Health, Alejandro Vázquez, to the Cs attorney, Francisco Igea, published in the Official Gazette of the Courts of Castilla y León.
regional bet
From the Ministry they opt, in addition to speeding up the homologation of non-community citizens from the Ministry, to guarantee that the MIR election system does not leave empty places as has happened this year, and that the Emergency and Emergency Medicine Specialty is already created. They also demand to expand the number of specialized training places in Family and Community Medicine to face the generational change, and reform the accreditation system and the training program of this specialty to later make an extraordinary call for places.
In addition, they propose the creation of a state registry of health professionals that can serve to guide training needs and thus avoid deficits in certain specialties, and implement measures so that family doctors have time to recover their essential role as the axis backbone of comprehensive care for citizens.
It is the roadmap of a common front of autonomous governments of the PP, together with that of the Basque Country, which they have put on the table of the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, to solve the deficit of specialists in Family and Community Medicine.
All vacancies convened
At the moment, the Vázquez department is taking steps, and for next year it will offer 190 places, up from 161 a year ago. This is the total accredited figure, something that had never happened before. By areas, nine positions in Family and Community Medicine are for Ávila; 41 for Burgos; 20 for Leon; nine correspond to El Bierzo; 12, with Palencia; 18, with Salamanca; eight more with Segovia; 15, with Soria; 20, with West Valladolid; 24, with Valladolid East (16 for the Clinical Hospital and six for the one in Medina del Campo); and 14 Zamora.
Added to this “historical” offer is the possibility of extending active service up to 70 years of age, provided that the training conditions are met; better working conditions, avoiding “bad contracts”, with possibilities for research and teaching.