MADRID 4 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Health, Mónica García, reported this Friday to the autonomous communities that she will provide public universities with 26.7 million euros to finance 1,783 places of the degree of medicine for the academic year 2025-2026, with the aim of increasing the offer and improving the availability of professionals in the National Health System (SNS).
This has been reported by Garcia during a press conference carried out after the end of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (CISNS), and in which it has stressed that it will allow to increase and maintain the aforementioned places.
Through a Royal Decree, Health will finance an estimated amount of 15,000 euros for each additional or maintained square that exceeds the figure collected in the University Verification Report as of December 31, 2025, although the financing of an increase in places that exceeds 15 percent of the number contemplated in said memory for each university is not contemplated.
13.8 million euros will be allocated to the financing of current spending of 922 first course increases above memory; 9.6 million euros for the 642 of the second year maintained above the verification memory and that had also been under financing in the previous course; and 3.3 million euros for the 219 places of the third year, under the same conditions as in the second year.
These subsidies began in 2023 together with the investments dedicated to improving teaching quality. In that year 706 places were financed, and in 2024 they were a total of 1,548 places.
This year the novelty has been added that the places that are occupied by students transferred from other public universities will be computable for the purpose of maintaining the places, as long as they are occupied by people who come from places that in the previous course were subject to financing at the University of Origin.
However, those transfers of people who come from universities that did not increase or maintained places above the verification memory will not be computed as maintenance of places, since these do not contribute to the real increase of the number of grade students in medicine.
Cofinance proposal
On the other hand, Garcia has confirmed the sending of a letter to the autonomous communities in which he has proposed “shared” financing, although “there has not been a single comment” in this regard. The minister has also shown her willingness to expand this initiative to expand the places of the nursing degree
Just before the meeting, the Minister of Health of the Government of Aragon, José Luis Banalero, has shown his “perplexity” due to the decision to increase the places for medicine, something that he has considered positive, but not doing the same with the nursing squares, whose deficiencies are also affecting the functioning of the health system.
This petition is in line with that previously carried out by the Nursing Union, Satse, which has urged to increase the number of nurses at a time when 100,000 professionals of this type are estimated to achieve to reach European standards, according to data from the Ministry itself.
These measures seek to increase the number of professionals at a time when different medical organizations and unions have informed about the saturation of primary care and emergency services, a situation that blame precisely to the lack of doctors. To address this situation, they also claim an increase in specialized health training places.
