The Secretary General of Universities, José Manuel Pingarron, has participated in the last day of the III Health Observatory. During his speech, he confirmed that the Ministry has offered to assume an increase of up to 15% in the places offered for the Medicine degree without the need to modify the curriculum.
Currently, he recalled, “we have an agreement by which a 10% increase in places for certain degrees -including Medicine- does not require permission. That is, universities can increase places without modifying the study plan “.
But the need for doctors has made the Ministry of Universities open a new path. “We are willing to assume an increase of up to 15% in the places offered without the need to modify the study plan. This would mean 8,800 new places in Medicine, 1,200 more than those offered this year“.
José Manuel Pingarrón Carrazón, Secretary General of Universities
The objective of this concession by Universities responds to the need to increase the number of doctors in Spain. As Pingarrón has commented, “there is a study by the Ministry of Health that concludes that Spain has a lack of 1,000 doctors a year.”
For this reason, if the Medicine places offered by Universities (both public and private) are increased by 15%, “we would meet that milestone of having 1,000 more places according to the needs of the aforementioned study”, the Secretary General of Universities continued.
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To reach this increase in places, several aspects must be taken into account, Pingarrón warned. “The main one is that the new places that are going to be created have the same quality standards“. That is, that all students have access to internships in hospitals. “According to the Ministry of Health, it seems that there is room for internships for all students.”
Furthermore, it is clear that an increase in the number of places implies an increase in the number of faculty. “An aspect that also seems acceptable, since the Treasury is willing to cover the cost at least for the next few years.” That is to say, “there is a general awareness that this increase in places must be made and that the expense is not unique to the autonomous communities,” she pointed out.
But they are not the only aspects to take into account. “Must adapt the offer of university places to those of the MIR“, Pingarrón has warned.
“We are also concerned regarding the homologation of foreign doctors. If there is a job that we do in an accelerated manner, it is the homologations”, he pointed out. In fact, in the last 8 years they have been approved 27,000 foreign medical degrees. And so far this year they are close to homologating 5,000 titles.
“We have a very important number of foreign doctors, but only 6% of the places in the MIR are for these doctors. The places have to be adjusted.”