The Minister of Health, Mónica García, has offered statements to the press following her visit to the candidates taking the MIR exam at the Ministry of Health in Madrid, Spain. A total of 13,990 applicants will be taking the exam, representing a 10.4% increase compared to 2023, with 1,315 more candidates appearing this year. However, there are only 8,772 places available, meaning more than 5,200 applicants will not be able to begin their specialized training this year.
In response to the shortage of Family and Community Medicine Resident Internal Physician (MIR) positions, the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands has joined several other communities in urging the Ministry of Health to adopt measures at the national level. The manifesto, which was signed by multiple regions, demands urgent shock measures from the Ministry of Health to address the lack of doctors in Primary Care and proposes concrete actions to alleviate the deficit of MIR places in Family and Community Medicine.
Among the proposals for urgent measures of ministerial competence included in the manifesto is the guarantee that the system for choosing MIR places does not leave vacant positions. It also calls for an urgent expansion of specialized medical training places in Family and Community Medicine to address the generational change and the need to modify the regulations on accreditation requirements for teaching units.
Additionally, the document proposes carrying out a call for extraordinary MIR positions in the specialty of Family and Community Medicine to encourage an increase in these positions and highlights the importance of developing instruments to allow the National Health System to plan its training offer more rigorously in the future. Finally, the manifesto supports promoting and implementing measures that facilitate the competency development of the doctor specializing in Family and Community Medicine.