Health Ministry Justifies Hiring 600 Doctors Without MIR Due to Specialist Shortage

Health Councillor Marciano Gómez has justified the hiring of 600 doctors who have not completed the MIR due to the shortage of specialists, emphasizing that "our primary obligation is to provide healthcare". He insisted on demanding the Ministry to allow "flexibility" in the criteria of teaching units to train more healthcare professionals.

Gómez, speaking to the media, reiterated: "There is an undeniable reality, which is the lack of healthcare personnel, specifically doctors." Therefore, he stated that since taking office, he has been persistently and continuously urging the Ministry to "relax the teaching units to train more residents as is our intention."

He further emphasized that all Health officials must fulfill their "responsibility" to ensure "the right to health": "If there are no specialized medical personnel, if the Ministry does not want to fix things, our duty is to provide healthcare to citizens, and if we have to hire doctors without MIR, we will."

In this regard, he recalled that this year he requested to train 15% more Family Doctors. "As long as this councillor is in office, he will be absolutely willing to collaborate with the Ministry, but the Ministry must want to collaborate with this councillor," he asserted.

Thus, he insisted that the Valencian Community "will make every effort necessary to train more MIR, always with quality criteria, but allowing us to relax the criteria of teaching units, because the responsibility to train them is ours, but the responsibility to adjust the criteria lies with the Ministry," Gómez stated.

In this line, he pointed out that "it is unacceptable" that 15,000 MIR apply and only 9,000 positions are offered, and that "they are not increased despite the lack of specialists currently existing nationwide."