Five Spanish medical-scientific societies promoted a manifesto addressed to the minister, spokespersons and ministers of health under the slogan “don’t divide health care anymore”.
“Don’t Split Health Care Anymore”
Specifically, this manifesto was signed by the Spanish Society of Primary Care Physicians (SEMERGEN), the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (SemFYC), the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG), the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI) and the Spanish Society of Preventive Medicine, public health and health management (SEMPSPGS). Those societies are “seeking the creation of specific training areas for infectious diseases and emergencies” to avoid fragmentation of health care, instead of new medical specialties.
The manifesto states that currently “Spanish demography shows an aging population with a tendency to increase in the next 20 years”.
It is also stated that “the aging of the population, multimorbidity and the shortage of doctors make it increasingly necessary to have specialists with versatile knowledge who are adaptable to the changing circumstances of today’s world.” Any fragmentation of the field of knowledge with the creation of new specialties is against this need and may jeopardize the future care of the population”.
Emergencies and infectious diseases are transversal
Likewise, the manifesto explains that “some areas of knowledge, such as emergencies and infectious diseases, are transversal and inherent to all medical specialties. Other very specific areas will be overtaken in the future by medical advances with the advent of new therapies and diagnostic procedures” and that “experts currently working in specific areas of knowledge such as emergencies and infectious diseases need formal training and deserve professional recognition.”
Because of all of the above and “considering that the creation of new medical specialties must lead to a necessary prior reflection on the health model”, the signatory societies request that “special areas of training for infectious diseases and emergencies and emergencies be created”.