Spain needs to hire doctors to deal with the lack of professionals, which is very urgent in specialties such as Family medicine. That is why our country has been making efforts to attract talent from outside our borders, for example, expanding the quota for non-community citizens in the last call of the MIR. There are also more and more autonomous communities that claim the Ministry of Health streamline the process of homologation of their titles so that they can practice.
Despite this, the latest data from the State Public Employment Service, collected in the State Foreigners Labor Market Reportreveal that the number of contracts in Family Medicine fell in 2021 compared to 2020. Specifically, it did 0.47 percent, which places the contracts reached last year at 5,699. However, in 2021 the demand for employment also falls by 27.88 percent compared to 2020.
In this specialty, and according to the latest data, 32.82 percent of the professionals are foreigners. And despite the decline in hiring, the same report reveals that Family Medicine is one of the most requested occupations in Spain by foreign job seekers, with 194 applications. This implies that 16.67 percent of labor demands are from people whose origin is outside our borders.
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In 2021, the demand for employment falls by 27.88 percent compared to 2020 in Family Medicine |
However, this difference is even more noticeable in the section that the report calls “other medical specialists”. In this ambit, the pace of hiring falls 4.89 percent in one year, reached 9,407 new jobs. In this section, 32.82 percent of the professionals come from outside of Spain.
In Spain, in general, the data of variation 2021/2020 of the report indicate an increase in the number of contracts in almost all occupations, with the exception of the two areas mentioned above, as well as in other areas such as employees of pawnshops and loans, deep-sea fishermen, canning workers of fruit and vegetables, and agricultural laborers.
The ‘odyssey’ of homologating a Medicine degree in Spain
In a recent report of Medical Writingthe foreign doctors relate their feelings before the odyssey of the process of homologation of your title and that is recognized by the Spanish system. Two doctors, anonymously and to avoid possible problems, tell this newspaper how their process is going and how they feel about the impossibility of exercising and putting into practice the knowledge they have from their training.
In a private clinic in Castilla-La Mancha works Rebeca (prefers not to reveal her real name), a Cuban doctor who has been in Spain for six months. “I have been hired as an assistant receptionist. I am in charge of keeping the agendas and I help with a series of other tasks. The clinic was looking for a person with medical knowledge,” she explains. Rebeca feels useful because “I can give health information to callers and my colleagues, knowing that I am a doctor, they tell me about some cases of patients and I like that a loto”. However, the doctor regrets that “they pay me very little, although at least I work in the field of Medicine”.
For its part, Olivia (prefers not to reveal her real name) is Russian and has been working as an assistant in a private clinic in Barcelona for three months. “Two years ago I finished university, I came to Spain and I have spent a year and nine months in the process of homologating my degree”. During this time she has also worked as a translator in a clinic that received visits from Russian patients, although with the outbreak of the war they stopped coming and the clinic closed.
Universities stop the homologation of university degrees
On the other hand, just a few days ago the Ministry of Universities has closed the door to making an exception to speed up approvals of the titles of doctors who have completed their studies abroad. The Joan Subirats team will prepare the accreditations according to the “rigorous order of entry”, without granting exceptions due to the lack of doctors. A step aside that occurs at the gates of a demonstration in front of its headquarters of the non-community group.
Portfolio sources have explained to Medical Writing what sand will adhere to the Law of Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations of the year 2015 to fix the calendar of medical records from outside our borders. Only some variation is contemplated by a “reasoned order” such as the “exception made during the pandemic due to the need for health professionals”.
This point of view collides with the plans of the Ministry of Health, which does want to prioritize the homologation of titles in the five most deficient branches. Family, Anesthesiology, Psychiatry, Radiodiagnosis and Occupational Medicine They have already been placed as the keys to strengthening the National Health System. Although the Subirats team has recalled that it is not part of its tasks: “It should be remembered that the Ministry of Universities does not have competence for the approval of specialties in Medicine”, they have pointed out.
Although it may contain statements, data or notes from health institutions or professionals, the information contained in Medical Writing is edited and prepared by journalists. We recommend the reader that any questions related to health be consulted with a health professional.