The government agrees to fund an additional 751 places for medicine in public universities

On Tuesday, the Council of Ministers approved a royal decree to regulate the granting of up to 52 million euros to the autonomous communities to fund the creation of 751 medical degree places in public universities, which represents an increase of 15 percent compared to the previous year. Government spokeswoman and Minister of Regional Policy and Public Service, Isabel Rodriguez, stressed at a press conference that this measure aims to “facilitate the long-term increase in the availability of medical professionals to reduce the shortage of health professionals in various specialties.” The executive branch spokesperson emphasized that this deficit is “the result of” the “prolonged decline in public MIR performances between 2011 and 2018”, coinciding with most of the legislature of President Mariano Rajoy’s party government. Since the motion of no confidence and Pedro Sanchez’s entry into the executive branch, the spokesperson has defended that it has been implementing “a policy of reversing these cuts with an increase in MIR jobs, the effective retirement of some medical specialties or a greater public offering of jobs, up to 11,600 on the last call.” Isabel Rodriguez argued that this measure is only for public universities because the government has detected “an increase in graduates from private universities compared to public universities”. In any case, he noted, the procedure is “agreed upon” with the Autonomous Communities, which are “those that have jurisdiction in this field”. “With this strategy, we support independent communities in a competition that is no less important than health,” he stressed.