Two routes for medical transfer to specialties in deficit

The latest studies on the surplus of doctors expected in the next decade in some specialties and the deficit of professionals that will be presented by others have awakened the need to find a model that allows physicians to change branches once they have completed their residency. The most authoritative voices in the sector have anticipated two alternatives that would make it possible to guarantee this transition and ensure that cover all the places jobs in the future. On the one hand, there is the transformation of the Spanish training system towards a paradigm in which competences are the central axis. On the other, recover the failed trunking project, that already tried to apply in 2014.

The Collegiate Medical Organization (OMC) is one of the guarantor institutions of the first formula with which they are committed to bringing the MIR system of Spain closer to a model closer to the one that prevails in the European Union. The objective is that doctors are not trained in fixed specialties with a specific number of years, but that each title would be obtained based on the acquisition of a competency map. Some of them would be transversal and others more specific.

This change would pave the way to move from one area to another in case the market does not cover the necessary quota of professionals. “If you train as a Family doctor and then want to go into Anesthesiology, probably there is a large part that you already have knowledge of and you would only have to acquire the skills of the specific part”has related to Medical Writing Manuela Garciathe vice president of the collegiate body.

The WTO spokesperson stressed that the competency system is the “ideal” bet of the institution, although it would require significant structuring and the establishment of common rules for its use. In any case, the jump will always be easier between specialties that share more areas of knowledge than those in which there is a greater gap. “Logically, an internist is not going to become a surgeon, but there are other areas that have a part of common competences”, he added.

In any case, the vice president of the institution has tried to flee from the studies that anticipate the surplus of thousands of doctors in specialties such as Anesthesiology. In his opinion, the changing evolution of the MIR calls, the changes in the demand for assistance or the innovations in technology, big data or artificial intelligence make it impossible look to the future with such rigidityz”.

The return to the trunk model

The main alternative to this competence model is the recovery of the trunking system. This formula has already tried to be applied without success in 2014 when the Government published a royal decree with profound changes in the Specialized Health Training (FSE) model, although Justice finally backed down the initiative due to the lack of uan economic memory.

The State Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM) has now recovered this idea as one of the possible solutions to facilitate the transition of physicians between specialties. This approach is based on the fact that all medical branches are divide by groups. In each sector, a series of core knowledge and other more own.

In this way, to be able to change your specialty once you have completed the residency, you would only have to finish the most specific part. “Common trunks could be made to give professional outlets at a certain moment in your professional practice”, he explained to this newspaper Thomas Toranzothe president of the union organization.

The plant’s spokesman stressed that in order to apply this process it is essential to analyze which areas can orchestrate the “catwalks” to allow change and between which not. “A traumatologist cannot become an ophthalmologist because there is nothing in common. But an internist can go to several places. An anesthetist could go to intensive care or to the emergency room ”, she has detailed.

“The decree that was annulled provided for core training and specific training that would allow you to change your specialty. The issue of trunking was dropped. Y At the present time, one would be trapped in their own specialty.” Toranzo added.

What both the WTO and the CESM do agree on is the value that can be generated for any transition by the Specific Training Areas (ACE) since they can allow professionals from different specialties to achieve even more concrete knowledge. So, for example, intensivists, anesthetists or cardiologists can aspire to the same title of Palliative Care. Something that, in any case, still requires further development by the Ministry of Health.