Junta de Andalucía announces multi-pronged approach to recruit more doctors

The Andalusian public health service (SAS) will lose an expected total of 5,871 doctors in all specialities by 2032. In the last 12 months alone, 1,259 doctors have retired in Malaga province, while by 2030 more than 300 specialists will have left primary care (rising to 568 by 2032, including those who retired last year). Faced with the obvious shortage of medical graduates, the regional ministry of health, presidency and emergencies, which has been headed by Antonio Sanz since the breast cancer screening crisis, has launched a regulatory framework of measures on several fronts in order to recruit doctors wherever they are available.

Among the causes pointed out by the regional government (the Junta) as the root of the problem are the lack of attractiveness of certain posts, usually in rural areas; strictly demographic reasons, such as the increase in the number of professionals retiring from healthcare due to reaching retirement age (the SAS forecasts 2,854 retirements in the coming years); or the current imbalance in training a sufficient number of professionals to ensure generational replacement in some specialities. To these must be added the exodus of young specialists in search of better salary, stability and working conditions in other regions and abroad (a situation which is undoubtedly present throughout Spain).

The Junta has explored several solutions in order to recruit as many doctors as possible. It recently announced that, in 2026, Andalucía will exempt non-EU foreign medical specialists and nurses from the nationality requirement. According to the Junta, the measure "aims to guarantee healthcare in the current context of shortage of professionals in certain specialities". Until now, law 55/2003 required certain specialities to be filled by Spanish nationals, nationals of an EU member state or nationals of a state to which, by virtue of international treaties signed by the EU and ratified by Spain, the free movement of workers is allowed, as well as foreigners legally resident in Spain. This nationality requirement is once again exempted.

To compare the difference between the recent past and now: in 2018, only 65 non-EU foreign medical specialists signed contracts with the SAS, compared to 848 this year.

Another measure that has been implemented is the approval of the decree for posts that are difficult to fill, which will strengthen healthcare in rural, remote areas or areas with particular difficulties in terms of recruitment, as well as in professional categories with a structural deficit. Under this measure, doctors applying for these posts will not be required to sit an exam, but will instead take part in a merit-based selection process, once it has been established that the positions cannot be filled through the usual recruitment or appointment procedures.

An electronic application system has been introduced to speed up the process. The decree also includes a merit-scoring framework that gives decisive weight to professional experience and recognises work carried out in hard-to-fill areas. However, those awarded a post will be required to remain in it for a minimum of two years.

This system has already been used to fill 364 vacancies for general practitioners and paediatricians in primary care that were left vacant in the registration phase of the 2025 public employment season, which is currently under way.

The third measure consisted of asking the government to extend enhanced active retirement that allows general practitioners and paediatricians in primary care to continue practicing until the age of 70, in view of the hundreds of retirements that will take place in these specialities in the next few years. Regional minister of health Antonio Sanz has called for this measure to be extended until December 2028, which would allow doctors to collect part of their pension while they are still practicing, up to the age of 72, preventing more than 1,000 specialists from ceasing to practice in Spain and preventing "thousands of medical appointments in Andalucía" from being lost. The Junta also demands that this measure be extended to all specialities, as agreed with the Malaga medical union (SMM).

There was also a fourth measure. Under the agreement reached on Monday between the unions and the regional health minister aimed at creating a more agile, transparent and fair system, it was agreed that resident specialist doctors (EIR), both medical (MIR) and nursing residents, will be automatically added to the recruitment pool once they complete their training. Measures have also been introduced to speed up hiring, which is particularly important in urgent cover situations or in shortage specialities. The use of the register and extraordinary recruitment lists in response to structural staff shortages has been set out far more clearly. "We are not turning a blind eye to shortages - we are managing them with clear rules, avoiding improvisation in healthcare centres," Sanz said.

Lastly, the Junta has defended the increase in staff and the stabilisation achieved in recent years. The SAS has gone from 101,000 professionals in 2018 to 130,000 in 2025, which is an increase of more than 28,000 people (28%). The public employment offer (OEP) of 2025 foresees a total of 10,289 vacancies.