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Date Published: 07/10/2021
ARCHIVED - Dire shortage of doctors in Andalusia in next 10 years
Retiring doctors, low wages and long study times are blamed for the upcoming health crisis in Andalucía
The shortage of doctors in Andalucía has already reached alarming levels, but it will become much worse in the coming years due to upcoming retirements, according to Regional Minister for Health and Families, Jesús Aguirre.
This is a growing problem in the whole of Spain, and now Andalucía wants to highlight the seriousness of the approaching catastrophe. The worst hit areas of medicine will be paediatricians and GPs. There is currently full employment in the health sector in Andalucía, but salaries for doctors are below the Spanish average.
As well as raising wages for doctors, the regional government has also stressed the need to increase the number of students in medical schools. However, students must study for 10 years to become a GP in Spain, so more medical students will not solve the problem of the lack of health professionals for another decade. “It will, rather, be a solution for the next decade,” said Mr Aguirre.
As a short-term fix, the regional government is focusing on having patients attended by nurses in primary care centres without referral to a doctor. While face-to-face medical care is back on the rise now that the coronavirus pandemic is abating in the region, telephone consultations still remain popular. The Health Minister hopes this too will speed up waiting times and patient processing in medical centres.
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