Dermatology has been the first specialty to be fully allocated for the fifth consecutive year in the assignment of Medical Intern Resident (MIR) positions, which began this Monday. Its 140 positions were filled before five in the afternoon at applicant number 486, breaking last year’s record, which reached 542.
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On the first day of assignments, there is almost nothing but joy at the doors of the Ministry of Health, where doctors go to choose their destination: bouquets of flowers, wreaths, applause, lifting in celebration. It is the turn of the top 700 scores and most graduates can choose the specialty they want, even in the city and hospital they desire.
There are always some trendy specialties. Before dermatology, the first to be fully allocated was Plastic Surgery, which in recent calls has moved to second place. There are many reasons, but it is no coincidence that both have very good professional prospects and can generate high income in the private sector.
“I had always liked Dermatology because it is medical-surgical. I like that it has the consultation part and also the operating room,” says Elena Ibáñez, number 358 in the MIR, who will do this coveted specialty at the Severo Ochoa hospital in Leganés.
She acknowledges that working conditions have also weighed, especially this year, in which doctors have been on strike for three weeks to improve them. “Nowadays, quality of life is looked at a bit more and also not working 90 hours a week, not just vocation, because you can’t live on vocation alone,” says Ibáñez.
In total, 9,278 positions are allocated, in order of score where 90% is weighted by the MIR exam and 10% by the academic record. Each day, starting today, 700 positions are distributed in which applicants choose both the specialty and the hospital where they will do their specialty.
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Among Luis Preto’s reasons for choosing Dermatology are neither economic nor the fact of not having on-call duties, something other colleagues consider for their choice. “It was the one I had always wanted during my studies. When I took the subject at university, I loved the possibility of diagnosing just by looking. Then I fell in love and that was what I fought to achieve all this time,” says this Panamanian with Spanish nationality who will move to Barcelona to do his residency.
Bianca Ciobanu, number 1 of the class, has also chosen Dermatology. In the top 10 positions, besides this specialty, Internal Medicine, Digestive, Plastic Surgery, and Cardiology have been selected. The last to be fully allocated is always Family Medicine, largely because it is also by far the one that offers the most positions, some of which have remained vacant in recent years.
For many doctors, beyond the specialty, the place where they do it carries significant weight. Magdalena Montes, from Oviedo, has chosen Otolaryngology at the Central University Hospital of Asturias: “I’m from there, the service is very good and I wanted to stay at home. I hesitated with dermatology, but I was more drawn to ENT, honestly.”
Laura Ferrer, with all options available, has opted for neurology at the Josep Trueta hospital in Girona, where she is from. “It is very interesting, there are still many things to discover, and it is very unknown to most people. It is also true that there are many diseases that still do not have a cure as such for patients, and that motivates me a lot to choose it. Besides, I am very clinical, very much into physical examination, and I think this specialty also fulfills that,” she assures.
Almost the entire month of May remains to allocate the remaining positions in the first year in which Emergency Medicine can be chosen, which offers 86 positions. They will take office between June 3 and 5, the date on which all doctors will begin the training period to become specialists.
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