Urgencies and emergencies professionals: current profile and

Abstract

Emergency services, both hospital based and pre-hospital, are care mechanisms that have been developed above all as a result of the General Health Law of 1986. They are in high demand and have a care overload, while they provide high quality care and are strategic elements in the working of the National Health System. However, their professionals, basic and substantial elements in their tasks, have been relegated in strategic planning and, above all, do not receive regulated specialised training in Emergency Medicine. This would guarantee that from the very moment they take up their care duties they have all of the abilities, skills and attitudes demanded of them by the patients’ needs. This lack also prevents correct professional development, which is the basis of the future viability of the emergency services themselves. To resolve this dilemma, besides seeking solutions to the work and organisational problems of the different services, the creation of the Speciality of Accident and Emergency Medicine, in the framework of core medical studies, is an essential requisite. This is how it is being dealt with by our nearby countries and this need has been recognised by the Spanish Parliament and by the majority of political, social and professional sectors.