Without doctors, on the road to collapse
Wednesday, May 31st 2023
Tuesday 6th, at 22:05 h, in the tv3 programme "Sense Ficció".
"Without doctors, on the road to collapse" is a portrait of the shortage of doctors that the Catalan health system is facing when the so-called "boomer" generation of doctors starts to retire in a few years' time. In five years' time, around thirty percent of the doctors in Catalonia are expected to retire. Doctors who are absolutely necessary to care for a population with longer life expectancy and an increasingly ageing population.
The Catalan health system, which was a fundamental tool for dealing with the COVID, now has to face a new structural challenge that requires quick and concrete decisions.
"Without doctors, on the road to collapse" has sought to take a photographic snapshot of this situation and puts on the table the possible solutions and problems that are being considered in order to maintain the current demand for health system services.
Catalonia and Spain produce good doctors who are highly appreciated abroad for their training and preparation, but the differences in salaries between our country and abroad mean that many doctors are considering leaving Catalonia or working only in private healthcare.
While we face these problems, at the same time the number of non-EU doctors arriving in Catalonia with the aim of practising their profession with the dream of building a professional and personal future is constantly increasing.
We wanted to explain all these problems by going into six personal stories of doctors that illustrate the current situation of this profession very well.
The health system is now faced with the challenge of dealing with this situation with little time. The continuous political changes have not been conducive to designing and implementing a policy that provides an effective response to this problem. In seven years, the Generalitat has had four different health ministers and seven health ministers in nine years. This has complicated the situation.