Family Medicine does not finish convincing the youngest professionals. Once the ordinary process of MIR positions to access specialized training was held, in Castilla y León 55 of the 190 positions offered in this branch have remained vacant. In other words, three out of ten each do not have a student who is going to be trained to practice in this health area, while at the national level the positions that have remained empty in this specialty have been 202 -of which more than 25 percent correspond in the Community.
By province, the one with the greatest number of empty spaces is Burgos, with 19; six in the Aranda de Duero area and another nine in the Miranda de Ebro area, followed by León, where there are 17; seven of them in the El Bierzo area. Eight more have been released in Palencia; nine, in Soria, and two in Medina del Campo (Valladolid).
From yesterday until May 11, the Ministry of Health has launched an extraordinary process in which more positions could be covered, since the specialty restaurant is practically complete. This is a period that already had to be enabled last year for the same reason. The recipients, according to the order that regulates it, are "applicants for the Medicine degree who would not have been awarded a place in the ordinary appeal for any reason" and non-EU citizens.
Last year, once the 'repeche' was carried out, 133 of the 161 positions offered were completed in the Community. The Junta de Castilla y León, which has already shown its concern about the situation of this specialty on several occasions, is confident that a few more positions can be filled at this stage. And it is that the deficit of professionals in this area is beginning to be noticed, but, if the forecasts do not change, it will do so more in the coming years, when a high number of retirements are expected.
Rural and cutting note
As a result of the situation, the counselor of the branch has planted in the central government that allowed the training of Family Medicine residents in rural health centers. This, he says, could help young people to get to know this field -very broad in the Community- and encourage them to choose the specialty. On the other hand, he has suggested that the cut-off mark established so that people who have passed the MIR can choose a specialization position be eliminated because, in his opinion, every year many applicants are left out of the selection, despite having passed the exam.
