The study carried out by the Spanish Alliance of Private Hospitals (ASPE) shows that today, the largest number of medical professionals work in the private sector, although they are also the ones that will see the greatest number of retirements in the next 15 years. This is reflected in the information gathered by ASPE in the study ‘Medical Specialists in Private Healthcare’, based on data provided by 24,189 professionals from 104 associated medical centres, located in the different autonomous communities.
The report has been carried out to collaborate with the sixth study of ‘Supply-Need of Specialist Doctors’ prepared by the Ministry of Health, this being the first time that the private sector has contributed its data since the creation of the study in 2007, including information on the number of doctors by speciality, sex and age working in the private system.
For Carlos Rus, President of ASPE, ‘it is very positive that the Ministry of Health has finally counted on the collaboration of the private healthcare sector in this report and included a portrait of its situation, which helps us to have a complete picture of what is happening with specialists in the National Health System as a whole’.
In this context, for the healthcare provision sector it is imperative to speed up the process of homologation of foreign qualifications, bearing in mind that this measure will not only facilitate the immediate incorporation of highly trained international talent, but will also allow a more efficient response to the demands of the labour market, ‘even more so in summer, when the situation becomes particularly critical as the shortage of professionals becomes more acute’.
Furthermore, ASPE believes that complementary initiatives such as the re-specialisation of already trained professionals can contribute significantly to solving this crisis, ‘offering a dual solution that optimises both the use of existing talent and the integration of new skills’.
The employers’ organisation also believes that it is essential to integrate private healthcare institutions to a greater extent in training programmes for medical interns (MIR). ‘This public-private collaboration will not only optimise the use of available resources, but also expand training opportunities for future specialists,’ said Olga Ginés, chair of ASPE’s HR Committee.
‘Incorporating the private sector will significantly increase the number of places available for residency training, ensuring high quality medical training and relieving pressure on the public health system,’ adds Ginés. The aim of this measure is to ensure an efficient and sustained response to the health needs of the population, guaranteeing an adequate number of specialists to meet this growing demand, both through the use of existing talent and the integration of new competencie
9,725 specialists will retire in the next 15 years
The speciality that will be most affected by these retirements is Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology, which will lose 284 doctors in the next five years; 275 in the next 10 years; and 477 in the next 15 years. In other words, by 2038, private healthcare will have 1,036 fewer orthopaedic surgeons and traumatologists. This is followed by Obstetrics and Gynaecology, which will lose 856 professionals in 15 years, and Anaesthesiology and Resuscitation, which will have 830 fewer professionals.
Read the article on ASPE website
