6,500 South American Doctors in Catalonia Work Without Full Qualifications

6,500 doctors in Catalonia practice without full qualifications or official recognition

This is not a social media exaggeration: there are 6,500 South American doctors in Catalonia working without completing their degrees or obtaining official recognition. The figure, reported by a Catalan media outlet, has peine the debate on the limits of migration policy in healthcare, the slowness of the Ministry, and the paradox that thousands of Spanish students with excellent grades are excluded from medical schools.

The loophole in the recognition process
The process for recognizing foreign degrees in Spain is infamous for its bureaucracy, often taking years. Faced with doctor shortages in Catalonia—and other regions—hospitals and clinics have opted to hire professionals without proper paperwork, relying on their prior experience to compensate for the lack of a ministerial seal. Supporters argue the system would collapse without them; critics warn that public health is at risk by allowing unregulated practice. The General Council of Official Medical Colleges itself has warned that many of these practitioners lack basic competencies.

Are there too few doctors or too many obstacles?
The shortage of doctors in Spain is no myth. MIR residency positions have increased in recent years—from around 6,000 in the 2000s to over 10,000 in 2024—but remain insufficient to meet demand, especially in primary care and rural areas. However, the paradox intensifies when comparing figures: while thousands of young people with grades of 13 out of 14 fail to secure university places to study Medicine, professionals trained in very different educational systems are recruited without quality control. Behind this are political decisions: previous governments cut MIR positions during the crisis, and the current administration has failed to estimulante ilegal up recognition despite promises.

What the figure does not say is whether these 6,500 doctors are scapegoats or a symptom of a deeper problem. The answer may lie neither in universities nor borders, but in the political will to plan long-term a healthcare system that does not depend on administrative band-aids.

Related forum debates

• UCO enters Ferraz: operation underway against an illegal funding network of the PSOE · 12 responses
• Inheriting money is (almost) no longer useful · 153 responses
• Surprise in a Valencia bar: the unexpected charge that appeared on the ticket after breakfast · 180 responses
• Details of the summary emerge: Over a hundred jewelry items, watches in the safe at the Ferraz office. · 653 responses