“The main problem is the working hours that we can spend more than 100 hours (per week). All of this has to be regulated and I don't think the new statute proposed by the Minister of Health is the solution.” Francisco Javier Martos Soriano, 22, from Almería, a fifth-year medical student at the Miguel Hernández University (UMH), He wants to continue training, do the MIR and specialize in Oncology.
Ten years can pass from starting your degree until you are able to work caring for cancer patients, an investment in talent made by the Spanish State that is often lost with the flight of new professionals abroad.
Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom are some of the countries that interest future doctors.
In his case, he has thought about leaving. He does not know if he will carry it out “but with the way the working conditions are in Spain, many of us are considering it.” Swiss It is the destination that attracts you because it has better salaries and hours. “Going abroad is my last option because I love living here, being close to my family and friends, I don't want to leave but they expel you a little.”
Francisco Javier Martos / INFORMATION
The main problem is the working hours that can last more than 100 hours. All of this has to be regulated
This young man's feelings are not punctual. The majority of students consulted by INFORMATION during the XLIII National and XXI International Congress of Medical Students which is held in Alicante this week have thought about going abroad to practice, especially to Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Norway or the United Kingdom; and no one rules it out.
500 students from all over Spain
The future of the medical profession meets at the conference organized by fifth and sixth year students of the UMH Faculty of Medicine, with more than 500 students from all over Spain, who will share round tables on topics as varied as psychiatry in the penitentiary environment, plastic surgery, children's oncology or the medical approach in natural disasters; and practical workshops on cardiology, anesthesia, childbirth care or family medicine.
A Family Medicine workshop during the congress / Jose Navarro
No sleep
In general, those consulted consider that the amount of work of doctors does not correspond to salaries, working conditions or retirement, without forgetting that “it is not the same to care for a patient during your work schedule as when you have not slept for 23 hours, that has an impact on the patient.”
Ángela Guardiola Piqueras from Murcia, also a 5th year Medicine student at the UMH, is attracted to the surgical specialties. In his case, it points to job uncertainty, the workload and the low quality of life that a doctor can have, due to the large number of on-calls.
“There are many hours of work and in the end you are a person and you are very tired. They demand the same from you in the first hour as in the last and in the end the patient depends on you. You have people's lives in your hands and at the end of a shift you do not have the same ability to act as at the beginning.” He confesses to being a globetrotter and is clear that during his residency he will go to another country for a year.
Angela Guardiola / Jose Navarro
They demand the same from you in the first hour as in the last and in the end the patient depends on you. You have lives in your hand
doctor's daughter
Julia León, from Alicante, 24 years old, a Medicine student at the UMH (sixth year), really likes Gynecology and Urology. Coming from a family of doctors, he sees the situation as very complicated. “My father is a doctor, my sister is a doctor, and I have experienced a lot in my house the difficulty of the guards, of reconcile. I remember a lot of my father's guards, of being alone with my mother, and arriving the next day. And my sister is the same, a young person working a lot, who comes tired…in the end it is very complicated. “It's not a very encouraging future.”
The quality of life, the number of hours they have to work, the guards, the fact that they are not paid “is quite discouraging. In the end you have to work more hours than necessary because the job requires it.” She is happy in Alicante but everything depends on the MIR.
Julia Leon / Jose Navarro
My father is a doctor, my sister is a doctor, and I have experienced a lot at home the difficulty of being on duty, of reconciling
“I understand that there are many students who go abroad. It is something that we see more and more on social networks, with people who tell what their specialty is like in Germany, in Switzerland. It is something real and the salaries there are better and medical work is much better valued. It is something that in the end ends up on our minds.”
MIR Squares
Oriol Alions López is a 5th year Medicine student at the UMH. Originally from Catalonia, he came to the province to complete high school and college. He wants to specialize in Surgery or Cardiology, and will make the decision in the sixth year roundtable. Point to the topic of MIR places as the main problem.
“We have been exponentially increasing the number of faculties and students who enter the MIR exam for five or six years and we have not proportionally increased the places, which creates a funnel. Of the 15,000 people who took the exam this year, only 9,000 can obtain a place and then we say that there is a lack of doctors. We will have to provide places and consultations for them to work, not just faculties so that there are students who in the end go abroad, as we ultimately proposed. everyone.”
Oriol Alions / INFORMATION
We have been increasing the number of faculties and students who enter the MIR exam for five or six years and we have not proportionally increased the places
Something that he considers inevitable because “we all have acquaintances, friends, partners or relatives who are already in residence, in terrible conditions in many specialties, doing guard duty that does not pay contributions, they are not paid the same as the ordinary day but you do pay them in personal income tax and it forces you to consider the conditions in other countries.” In his case, he has looked at Switzerland, Germany or the United Kingdom, although “if we all had the opportunity, we would prefer to stay“. This future physician also places emphasis on working conditions, “nothing to do with those in Nursing, which have improved a lot,” he believes.
Finally, Carlos Vizcaíno, 23 years old, originally from Novelda, is also studying sixth year of Medicine at the UMH. Attracted to Traumatology, he believes that the current situation of Medicine is fair. “The guards (and their contributions) are quite poorly managed by politicians. Furthermore, it is impossible to be 100% with 17 hours of work, it seems excessive to me.”
Carlos Vizcaino / Jose Navarro
The guards are quite poorly managed by politicians. Furthermore, it is impossible to be 100% with 17 hours of work
His short-term plan is to finish his degree, do the MIR and the specialty, and depending on his employment situation he would consider leaving the country. “I don't rule out going abroad,” and he has a special preference for the northern European way of life.
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