Plan to unify the ‘mega rise’ salary to the MIR

Meeting of the Interterritorial Health Council held in Toledo.

The autonomous communities appeal to the Ministry of Health to mediate between the regions to unify the criteria regarding a salary increase for the MIR, proportional to the one announced by Catalonia. The communities have thus reacted to the Catalan measure that aims to attract new residents of Family and Community Medicine to the region by paying them up to 9,000 euros extra per year, and although the autonomies respect the initiative, they urge the “mediator role” of Health to achieve a “common” salary increase among all, thus avoiding what several communities call dumping wage.

“We all compete by putting more resources and each one takes the initiatives that it considers appropriate”, explains the general director of the Servei de Salut de les Illes Balears (IB-Salut), Juli Fusterin an interview with Medical Writing. “The mediating role of the Ministry of Health is important to unify initiativesand we are working on it,” he details.

In this sense, Fuster assures that the Ministry has created a working group, which also includes the autonomous communities, to define “what can be considered a place of difficult coverage precisely to be able to agree on some incentives, and in this way all play with the same cards”.

These words are in line with the opinion of other autonomous communities that, when consulted by this newspaper, have preferred not to directly assess the decision announced by Cataloniawhich will also benefit residents who choose Mental Health Nursing. However, regional sources believe that it would be positive to establish a common position on issues that may affect the entire National Health System, such as salary improvements for residents of specialized health training. Otherwise, they believe “There would be a dispute between who offers the best contract to sign residents”.


“A working group, in which the autonomous communities are also part, is working to define what can be considered a place of difficult coverage in order to agree on incentives”


It should be noted that year following year, Catalonia is the community that usually allocates the last vacancies for Family medicine to the latest order numbers. Specifically, it is the Catalan municipality of Sant Fruitós de Bages that welcomes the last applicant to choose a place in Family Medicine. With this initiative to pay up to 9,000 euros extra to the MIR who choose Family in Catalonia, they want to avoid continuing to be the caboose in the assignment, according to regional sources.

This extra pay promised by the Minister of Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Joseph Maria Argimonfuture MIR is in line with the ‘yes’ that the Congress of Deputies given to the proposal to raise the salary of all the MIR and other specialists from the Specialized Health Training (FSE). The Non-Law Proposal (PNL) presented by the Plural Parliamentary Group advocates for a “significant increase in remuneration”, in those concepts that depend on the Ministry of Carolina Darias, of the MIR that provide services in the teaching entities dependent on the National Health System (SNS), through the modification of Royal Decree 1146/2006, of October 6, by the which regulates the special employment relationship of residence for the training of specialists in Health Sciences. It is that environment of consensus to which various autonomies appeal to discuss in the Human Resources Commission of the National Health System a uniform improvement in the salary of residents.

What do the other regions do to attract MIR?

All the autonomous communities, hand in hand with the Ministry of Health, have increased the number of MIR in training in its territory. This measure has been implemented unanimously and there are even regions that consider that it should be increased further, such as the Director of Personnel of the Andalusian Health Service (SAS), Alberto Fernández, who estimates that “they should be convened around 1,900 MIR places per year in Andalusia“, as the Minister of Health of the Xunta de Galicia, Julio García Comesaña, who has requested the Health accreditation of 64 new MIR positionsor like the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia, which has directly requested the transfer of this competence to accredit their MIR places independently.

Galicia and Andalusia, in addition to Catalonia, are also the regions that have announced new decisions to attract and retain residents. The Galician Health Service (Sergas) has recently announced a Public Employment Offer for the category of statutory staff Primary Care Specialist Physician and endowed with a total of 106 seats. This call is addressed mostly to the resident medical staff who are currently in their final year training in the specialty of Family and Community Medicine.


In addition to Catalonia, Galicia and Andalusia have also recently announced initiatives to attract and retain MIR


Sergas is also working on giving MIRs access to a fixed contract without having to pass a competition-oppositionas usual, but a contest of merits and also access to degree I of professional career with only three years of services provided, instead of five, something exclusive for this new professional category of Primary Care.

Andalusia has also launched initiatives to retain its residents and will offer long-term contracts for MIRs that end in 2022. These contract offers are aimed above all at areas of difficult coverage and with it the Andalusian Health Service seeks retain the 1,029 residents ending in May.

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.

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