The planning of specialists and the role of scientific societies. How much is there of science?

Abstract

Health systems must have tools and policies to solve the challenge of having sufficient specialists) and with the appropriate skills. In the Spanish health system, this planning function corresponds to the Ministry of Health, through the consultation and participation of different boards, such as the National Commissions of the Specialty, the offer of specialist training is defined according to the forecasts of each institution. The existence of explicit planning criteria in professional scientific societies of the different medical specialities has been analyzed, exploring the documentation reflected in their white papers or strategic plans. As a result, we highlight that, although several professional scientific societies have descriptive data on the status of the workforce in their speciality, only eight specialities define criteria for estimating the demand for specialists. No description of objective criteria to guide future demand for specialists has been found.