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“It is not enough to increase the seats, the solution that Family Medicine requires is much more difficult.” Alex Maier, representative in Catalonia of the association MIR Spain, believes that “the only way to overcome specialty crisis in Spain it is to tackle it from different angles and make profound changes.”
“People do not choose this branch of medicine mainly because of the poor working conditions and because it is very discredited. You need to improve your image; it is better to explain the importance of the family doctor, and to do so already with the faculties. Also, of course, to improve working conditions,” says Mayer, the representative of the resident doctors in the Union of Catalan Doctors (MC).
“Main Subject”
Also remember that “most medical schools do not specific subject family medicine. When there is no mention of a particular specialty, it is taken for granted that it is family medicine. It looks like a mixed bag, it is not given the importance it deserves, ”condemns the doctor. Meyer shares the concern about the vacancies and resignations recorded in recent years, as they leave many medical centers in a “difficult” situation due to a shortage of staff and because the “dysfunction” is that the system does not have the capacity to train all the specialists it needs to meet the needs of the population in care and guarantee the replacement of specialists from generation to generation. “It is an anomaly that if the number of candidates exceeds the number of seats offered by the thousands, there are empty seats at the end of the review process. The ministry and autonomous communities should think deeply about the MID system as a whole,” he says.
Trade union representative does not believe in the effectiveness of punitive measures that you want to raise the ministry, but in positive change. “If they want to attract and retain family residents, the best course of action is to reduce the workload of doctors at Primary Health Care Centers (PHCs) and give them control over their treatment schedule. Improve conditions of care, make it easier to access research and studies, and offer them real opportunities for reconciliation,” he elaborates. “If only the number of positions in the MIR increases, and the main problem is not solved, only more vacancies will remain,” Mayer concludes.
For its part, the Federation of Associations for the Defense of Public Health (Fadsp) has asked the Ministry that MID’s appeals be purely redistributive and that no minimum score be required for these positions.
