What Solutions to the Shortage of Doctors? Our Social Responsibility at Stake

Physician availability is reduced due to poor management of the numerus clausus and, above all, societal changes, especially as an aging population creates new needs. The corrective actions that were taken are unlikely to significantly improve the situation. Besides, the multiple reforms of health studies are not coherent with each other, suffer from serious shortcomings, contain overloaded programs, and have not aimed to increase the number of doctors. We suggest completely rethinking the curriculum, while maintaining quality requirements, by reducing the duration of residency by one year and shortening the first two cycles by another year. A more clinical, transversal curriculum that eliminates the unnecessary and redundant—more integrated and more humanistic too—is necessary. This pragmatic reform enables us to provide the population with an additional sixteen to twenty thousand doctors within a reasonable time frame. Inaction at this stage of a clear diagnosis would be inexcusable. Our social responsibility is on the line.