The Ministry of Health is determined to address human resource issues of which the National Health System (SNS) suffers and in this first phase of analysis it has become clear which is the medical specialty that more problems of shortage of professionals faces in the short and medium term: Primary Care
This is confirmed by the report prepared by the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and to which it had access Medical Writingwhere it is ensured that Family Medicine is the specialty with worst prognosis shortage of health professionals.
“Even with the official population projections of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which are lower than those published in previous studies, in which very moderate population growth is forecast, the model estimates a major deficitalthough a reduction in it is observed over 2026-2027 when the MIR waves with the highest growth since 2019 are incorporated, ”says the report.
An agonizing diagnosis that has been endorsed by all the experts consulted for the preparation of the report, who place the need for specialists both in the present as in the future. In addition, they assure that the problem of the lack of professionals it has gotten much worse during the pandemic.
What are the causes of the Primary deficit?
The report sets in 39.666 Family doctors reported by the autonomous communities, of which 91.3 percent are assigned to Primary Care. A figure that in the future will be lower if the corresponding generational change is not carried out, since, as the researchers indicate, there is “a very old age pyramid”.
Although another of the relevant facts in the forecasts, according to the researchers, is the “gradual rejuvenation” of the age pyramid. “Those over 60 years of age will go in fourteen years from more than the current 30 percent to less than 10 percent.”
Reduction of Family training places
Another piece of information that explains the agonizing situation of the first level of care is that despite experiencing one of the most stressful times in its history, lThe annual training places called in 2021 fell slightly compared to 2020, while the global offer of MIR places in all specialties grew by 2.4 percent.
“One of the reasons that justify this fact is the limit imposed by the accreditation of training places. Since 2014 the percentage difference between accredited places and the offer in MFyC has been reduced considerably, which causes tensions between the need for professionals and the training capacity of the system”, the researchers explain.
Unattractive Family Medicine
A problem that in the study clarifies that it is not “only numerical”. On the one hand, many squares are in areas far from big cities, less attractive to young professionals. And on the other, there is “a large number of professionals” who opt for practice in the health sector private or in medicine emergencies of both sectors. In addition, according to the researchers, the contracts offered are generally temporary.
Faced with this shortage of professionals and the difficulties in recruiting doctors for Primary Care in recent years, the autonomous communities have created specific programs of loyalty of MIR residents. Even, as highlighted in the report, given the enormous pressure of the need for HRH due to covid, many centers in different Autonomous Communities offered contracts to all residents who finished the FSE. However, they had very little success particularly in Family Medicine”, say the researchers.
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