“The atmosphere is tense, with a lot of tension and stress”

In it, the Ministry of Health stipulated that the provisional lists of those admitted and excluded from the exam would be published no later than two months after the end of the application submission period, that is, they should have been published no later than November 14. But it was not until December 15, a month and a day later and already with Christmas approaching, that Mónica García’s department revealed them. The claim period for those who were not accepted to take the exam begins now and will end on January 2. In other words, there will be people who will not know whether or not they can take the exam until 20 days before it is given.

Lack of news

But beyond the uncertainty that exists, and which is great, the MIR candidates are all the more embarrassed that at present, the ministry has not contacted them to inform them of the delay and try to bring some calm. “The lists didn’t come out on time, okay, they can’t change that now, but they could have informed us a little, reassured us, told us that they were going to be delayed… But they told us absolutely nothing. “They could have considered calming down the opponents,” denounces Jorge Martín, 32, who is taking the exam for the second time this year.

Uncertainty, explains this doctor, who trains at the headquarters of the CTO academy in Oviedo, has been a constant in the last month, which has inevitably distracted them from studies, since it must be taken into account that the majority of these candidates have routines in which studying takes up at least ten hours of their day. “The atmosphere is quite tense, with a lot of tension and stress,” he says. Even this Monday, after the ministry published the lists, most candidates were unable to consult them due to problems on the website.

But the fact that the claim period coincides with the Christmas holidays They think it will be a problem for them too. There will be people who have been excluded from this provisional list, Martín predicts, who, if they need a document that they must collect in person at their university, for example, will not be able to do so because they are non-teaching dates. “There are many things, many keys to take into account. And the timing is very right. “It’s all very hasty,” he criticizes.

Bureaucracy is also one of the aspects that most worries Valentina Balaguera, a 27-year-old Colombian living in Madrid, since the first year she wanted to apply for the MIR. He was unable to do so due to problems in getting his medical degree approved.. This time, he believes that everything is in order, except for the “uncertainty” which has lasted for weeks since he did not know until Monday if his name was among those admitted. “It can happen to anyone, whether you enter the wrong code or hit it where it doesn’t fit,” he says.

No plane tickets or accommodation

Balaguera also assures that some of his professional colleagues who are currently in Colombia have registered for the MIR exam, but in the absence of news, they have not yet purchased plane tickets or looked for accommodation for those days, so in these cases the uncertainty multiplies.

Health published the lists this Monday, with a total of 34,553 admitted to take the exam and opt for one of the 12,366 Specialized Training in Health places offered in this call for doctors, nurses or pharmacists, among others. As this newspaper reported, last summer the committee of experts responsible for preparing the exam resigned en masse due to their complete disagreement with the changes proposed to the tests by the ministry. This year’s delay, according to sources in Mónica García’s department, is due to the fact that the company in charge of this call is the first time it has done so, in addition to computer problems.