General practitioners, nurses and psychiatrists will be increasingly needed.
Consultancies linked to the provision of medical services are accumulating studies on the professions in the health area that will be in greater demand from now on. The pandemic has forced to close the search criteria and speed up diagnoses. The North American Merritt Hawkins estimates that as soon as the control of COVID19 stabilizes, the five most demanded specialties will be family medicine, nurse practitioner, psychiatry, radiology and internal medicine.
The new general practitioner or family doctor is a concept that appeared in the second half of the 20th century. It is the professional responsible for providing comprehensive and continuous care to any individual who requests medical assistance, and may involve other health professionals who will add their services if required.
The changes are taking place at top speed. In Spain, in the academic year 2020, of 2,100 resident medical interns, only seven had chosen epidemiology. That same year, when the pandemic broke out, the limited existing specialists suffered an over demand for benefits, becoming true rockstars of epidemiology when they were consulted by television channels and health programs. Now, Spain is stepping up the accelerator with this specialty, beginning by accepting that it is a multidisciplinary science, which starts from a different base than medicine but at the same time requires master’s degrees and doctorates in immunology and public health.
The devastating impact of the epidemic, with its confinement, deprivation and states of depression and stress derived from it, has exposed the need for more psychiatrists to deal with highly complex conditions that exceed the competencies of social workers.
We have already addressed it on other occasions but it is worth returning to the subject as many times as necessary. It is urgent to review all lines of action contained in the National Health System regulated by Law 1032/96. It establishes the guidelines for the coordinated action of the supply of health services by the public, private or mixed subsectors, health insurance and universities. The pandemic made this system creak and an evaluation of the quality of response derived from its operation is necessary. And make the corrections that adapt it to the public health that is coming.
