José Miguel Cisneros*

Updated Friday, March 29, 2024-15:42

In its

more than 20 years of vindication of the specialty

, the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC) has carried out numerous actions to achieve it by conviction: numerous reports, studies, press conferences, round tables, meetings with ministers and senior officials of the Ministry of Health of the different governments that the nation has had, with representatives of practically all political parties, with the health authorities of all the autonomous communities, with professionals from other societies and national and international medical specialties, and with associations of patients, who have signed a manifesto in favor of its creation.

With all this we have managed to get

three ministers to publicly affirm that the infectious diseases specialty would be approved

in the following months, that the Popular Party and the PSOE presented separate non-law Proposals urging the creation of the infectious diseases specialty, and that were approved, the last one in 2017 without a single vote against.

Finally, we have contributed to the publication, in July 2022, of a

royal decree that regulates the creation of medical specialties

, and which was unanimously approved by the interterritorial council.

In first person

Health.

The brilliant MIR who cannot study his specialty... because it does not exist in Spain

  • Editor: FRANCISCO GOIRI Madrid

The brilliant MIR who cannot study his specialty... because it does not exist in Spain

Despite this,

the specialty of infectious diseases remains unapproved in this country

. We leave it to you to judge the actions of our political authorities to apply the laws that they themselves approve and to fulfill the commitments they make.

In view of the repeated failure of all the actions undertaken, each of the different boards of directors of the SEIMC has

considered whether a strike was necessary to obtain the specialty

, to achieve with determination and firmness what has not been achieved through conviction. and in a situation between frustration and despair.

We will continue along the path of conviction, unresponsive to discouragement, with the strength and tenacity that the main objective of this demand gives us: to ensure that in Spain, as happens in Europe, patients with serious and complex infections are cared for by specialists. in infectious diseases, in the same way that patients with serious and complex heart diseases are

cared for by specialists in Cardiology trained through the MIR route

.

*Dr. José Miguel Cisneros Herreros

,

former president of SEIMC and head of the Infectious Diseases service at the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Seville.