Universities ask to expand the Offer of Resident Internal Physician vacancies (MIR) to ensure the generational change of the staff of doctors in Castellón. As published by Mediterráneo, one in four doctors in Castellón will reach retirement age in 10 years. Currently, the universities of Castellón graduate around 150 Medicine students a year.
Increase MIR
The Vice Dean of Medicine at the UJI, Conrado Martínez, points out that the most important thing would be to increase the MIR vacancies, since no matter how many Medicine students leave, if the MIR vacancies are not increased, there is a bottleneck. For example, this year the Ministry offered 8,188 places, which represents an increase of 2.5% compared to last year, but more than 13,000 students applied. And those who do not manage to enter one year try once more the next, so the plug is not solved.
More specialties
The This year’s increase is insufficientconsiders Martínez, because it has been done at the expense of Family and Community Medicine positions, which account for 3 out of 4. This expert considers that it should be increase specialtiesfor example, he explains, in Pediatrics.
Investment
The reason why more MIR vacancies are not being offered, however, Martínez believes is that it has to do with the own capacity of health centers and the investment requiredsince a service that can host specialized training must have certain conditions in order to offer comprehensive training to future professionals.
Planning
For her part, the vice-dean of the Cardenal Herrera CEU University, Mª Amparo López, defended that given the aging of the workforce, “the best solution would be good planningwhich would mean setting a good balance short – medium term between undergraduate and MIR vacancies so that all those needs can be covered. Thus, graduates can opt for MIR positions, and residents to cover vacancies due to the retirement of doctors. In addition, it points out that «Following the recommendations of the conference of deans and scientific societies, it would be necessary to increase the number of MIR positions adequate to the needs of the population, albeit gradually, taking into account the economic conditions we are seeing.
“Universities have the capacity to train more students”
The vice-dean of the CEU points out that “Universities have the capacity to train more studentsbut you have to take into account how many doctors are going to be needed in the long term». “Good planning – he insists – will tell you if it is necessary to increase the places to study Medicine. If it is, you have to consult with the universities to see if they are capable of assuming it. If they are not, consider creating new universities. In turn, in the case of ME must take into account the number of graduates leaving but also the real health needs depending on the type of hospital, pathologies and specialties, he adds.
“The increase in grades is unstoppable”
The vice-dean of this degree at the Universitat Jaume I, Conrado Martínez, explains that it is not a problem of positions to study medicine since graduates “come out to spare”. Neither of faculties. “The increase in Medicine degrees is unstoppable. In the last 15 years the figure has doubled,” says Martínez. According to data from the Ministry, there are more than 40 Medicine degrees, offering more than 7,000 places. And there are still anticipation that more will be authorized.
Prestige and high demand
On the one hand, the prestige it gives to universities have a medical degree and high demand can explain this increase. An example. Last year, UJI Medicine obtained the highest cut-off mark, 13,376, and 4,284 people remained on the waiting list. In the Community, 5,975 first-choice applications were submitted for this degree, being the most requested by students. The UJI offers 80 first places and the CEU 70.
Castellón
In the case of the province of Castellón, for example, last year the UJI graduated 88 Medicine students and Cardenal Herrera CEU 71. Meanwhile, according to Health, in the 21/22 academic year, 96 specialized training places were offered for doctors, pharmacists, psychologists, physicists, biologists and chemists, two more than the previous year. Although the MIR places are a national call, to which students from all over Spain apply, the UJI offers 80 first-year places each year and the CEU 70, but in one year, people from previous courses can graduate.
Leak from white coats
The flight of white coats, that is, doctors who, following 12 years of training in Spain, decide to practice in other northern European countries because they offer better working conditions and salaries is another issue that must be taken into account in planning. Martinez values the salary difference that exists between Spain and other northern European countries. For example, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden or Norway. “Doing the same thing, they offer better working conditions and salaries,” he points out, recalling, for example, that 3,000 Spanish doctors go abroad to work every year. “The students who are now leaving the faculties are people of the world, they don’t care regarding working in Italy, France, Norway…”, she expresses.
Along the same lines, the vice-dean of the CEU points out that «the profile of the student who enters the faculties today has changed a lot; he has lived in the era of globalization, he comes out prepared in languages… A high percentage of these professionals have no problem going to other places to practice medicine where they are paid more, with which it would be advisable to address the issue of wages and working conditions, “explains Mª Amparo López, Vice Dean of Medicine at the CEU.
Practices
Regarding the training of graduates, Conrado Martínez points out that we are recovering from two very difficult years. And it is that many students have not been able to do the practices that they should have done. Now normalcy has returned, but even so the capacity of the service has been reduced.
The Vice Dean of Medicine of the CEU points out that In the case of the sixth year, last year the practicum might be taught normally with covid measures, and the 4th and 5th grades have been recovered as far as possible.. Nevertheless, “we complement external internships with internal ones in our advanced simulation center” for better training, he says.
