José Miguel Barquero, president of the Spanish Society of Cardiovascular and Endovascular Surgery (SECCE).
Only one month following the allocation of MIR places, the available quota in some specialties does not seem to adjust to the real needs of the service. José Miguel Barquero, president of the Spanish Society of Cardiovascular and Endovascular Surgery (SECCE) explains to Medical Writing that there is a “Surplus of MIR places“.
“There has been talk with the Ministry of Health. What they are going to cause is that in a few years there will be unemployed cardiovascular surgeons and it is absurd to spend money on such specialized training so that later there is no work, but they did not listen to us”, affirms the doctor.
Barquero assures that “24-25 students per year in the specialty of cardiovascular surgery are many, bearing in mind that we are 400 in staff throughout Spain. Being such a small number, we have always been very clear regarding the needs —taking into account the retirements, sick leave what might there be. We know, more or less, the surgeons that we may need in five years… but the Ministry of Health did not pay attention to us, so we stopped insisting “.
Health prefers “to have people unemployed”
The president of the SECCE explains to Medical Writing that “the specialties, the scientific societies and the commissions are for that and some reasons are indicated so that they do not MIR vacancies increase” and points to the ministry that Darias presides over, stating that they say something else and that his choice is “to have unemployed people before they’re gone.”
José Miguel Barquero believes that the quota of MIR places in specialties where a greater number of specialists is really necessary. “For a long time it has been said that many paediatricians and vacancies in Pediatrics do not increase. If I say that my specialty is not needed anymore, that quota be transferred to Paediatrics… but neither and that the Ministry of Health has few skills has more to manage the MIR issue, everything else is transferred to the communities”.
Staff double every four years
The doctor understands that “you have to have a little more in the workforce due to issues of pregnancy, maternity and paternity leave…”, but he warns: “If you have a workforce of 40 people you cannot train ten each year because in four years you have already doubled the total number of people“.
In declarations to Medical WritingJosé Miguel Barquero regrets that “public funds are spent on training a person who in the end is forced to go to work private medicine“.
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