One in four doctors in Spain will retire in next ten years
Professional associations, however, believe there will be no shortage of doctors if planning for this eventuality starts now on which specialities to promote and how to resolve shortages in certain areas
One in four doctors in Spain will retire in the next ten years, leaving a huge gap in the country's health centres and hospitals. Health ministries at the regional and national level must now determine how to plug this gap to avoid future disruptions, shortages and collapses in patient care. This is one of the main conclusions from a detailed assessment of the state of the medical profession in Spain, comparing it to the rest of Europe and outlining its medium- and long-term future. The review and report were compiled by the OMC (the Spanish association for medical professionals).
The 170-page analysis indicates that the average age of medical professionals is 47.5 years, meaning that approximately 69,000 doctors, 25% of the total, will retire between now and 2035. The Spanish regions with the oldest medical workforces are Aragón, Asturias and Castile and León. The four specialities where retirements will leave the largest gaps this decade, resulting in high replacement needs, are legal and forensic medicine, occupational medicine, clinical biochemistry and clinical analysis.
The report does not downplay the problem posed by the retirement of a quarter of active members of the medical association, but asserts that Spain will not be short of doctors to maintain quality care in the coming years if the Ministry of Health and the regional health ministries can reach a long-term agreement that strengthens the most-needed specialities and includes tools and incentives to guarantee hard-to-fill positions, especially those in rural Spain.
No brain drain of doctors
The document states that Spain currently has 276,000 practising physicians, some 55,000 more than eight years ago, placing it above the European average per 100,000 inhabitants and in the upper-middle range (11th out of 27). The report adds that the future, provided there is adequate planning, is facilitated by the significant increase in MIR places (training for resident doctors) implemented and planned by the Ministry in Madrid, with 9,276 places announced for 2026, and the enormous number of medical schools in the country - 53, an increase of nine in the last eight years due to the proliferation of private campuses. This figure makes Spain the country with the most medical schools per capita on the planet. A fourth piece of data is also relevant. There is no brain drain of doctors heading overseas. In 2024, only 460 medical professionals left to work abroad.
Still, it is not just the significant number of medical graduates that matters. Spain has a high rate of specialist physicians (2.15 per 1,000 inhabitants) and is a leader in family and community medicine, the mainstay of primary care. It is the fourth European country with the most family doctors per 100,000 inhabitants (95), 22 points above the EU average of 73.
There is an urgent need for replacement doctors in forensic medicine, occupational medicine, biochemistry and clinical analysis, plus the greatest regional shortages are in rural, 'empty' Spain
However, the study shows that all this resource potential is poorly distributed, with significant regional imbalances that undermine equity in patient care. While eight regions exceed the Spanish average of doctors per inhabitant (Madrid, Asturias, Navarre, Aragon, the Basque Country, Cantabria, Castile and León and Extremadura), Andalucía and Castile-La Mancha fall considerably short. The shortage of professionals is especially significant in the sparsely populated provinces of Spain, such as Zamora, Huesca, Soria, Cuenca and Teruel.
Based on its analysis, the OMC proposes four major measures to those in charge of health administration (centrally and regionally) to guarantee generational renewal and the efficiency of the healthcare system in the medium and long term. The first is to reach an agreement between the Ministry of Health and the regional governments on the replacement of doctors. This agreement should include, says the OMC, mechanisms for the equitable redistribution of posts, common planning criteria and incentives for relocation between regions. However, they warn that improvements in paternity and care leave will require an increase in staffing levels to maintain the quality of care.
The second measure is to plan a dynamic adjustment of the MIR places (medical residencies) offered, adapting the offering in advance of the projections made in the retirements report for each medical speciality and each region, as well as the emerging healthcare needs (ageing and chronicity) and the teaching capacity of faculties and health centres, with special attention given to strengthening hospitals and healthcare areas in rural Spain.
A feminised profession
The third measure is to harness the potential of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence (AI), as tools to address the shortage of professionals. Telemedicine and AI-based diagnostic support systems should be promoted, accompanied by digital training for professionals and technological integration between primary and hospital care.
The fourth proposal is to foster professional development and female leadership via transparent career plans, mentoring programmes and management training, as well as proactive policies for equality and increased visibility of female talent. This point is particularly relevant because six out of ten doctors are already women and, in a few years, they will make up 70% of the medical profession, yet between 60% and 70% of the leadership positions are still held by men.
A final market shift highlighted in the report is the remarkable and rapid expansion of private medicine in Spain. Since 2018, private sector medical premiums have grown by 6.4%, reaching 34 billion euros annually, representing 28.4% of total healthcare spending.
