The start of the period for responding to errors in the lists of persons admitted and excluded from specialized training in the health sector for the year 2025/2026 coincides with the Christmas holidays, a circumstance that, according to the Association of Health and Social and Sanitary Sectors of Workers’ Commissions (FSS-CCOO), represents an additional complication for applicants wishing to exercise their right to claim. Added to this is the delay in the publication of the provisional lists by the Ministry of Health, a problem that has sparked criticism and calls for immediate union intervention, according to information published by Europa Press.
As Europa Press reports, the FSS-CCOO has publicly denounced the Ministry of Health’s failure to respect the legal deadline for publishing the preliminary list of those admitted and excluded from the selection process. The union specified that the ministerial order requires the publication of the lists within two months of the end of registration, which ended on September 18. According to CCOO’s calculations, the publication should have taken place no later than November 18th, but was only completed late on the following Monday. For the union, this delay represents a direct violation of the official timetable set by the ministry itself.
In the statement quoted by Europa Press, the CCOO attributed the situation to poor planning and management, which it described as a lack of foresight, supported by an improvised organization, and referred to both the late publication of the provisional lists and the fact that the final decision will not be available until after January 7. The union warned that the lack of sufficient time to submit applications before consideration could affect both access to places and the internal organization of this process. According to Europa Press, the phase for submitting complaints about possible errors in the lists will be open from December 16, 2025 to January 2, 2026, a period that includes dates such as Christmas and New Year. According to the union organization, this makes it more difficult for applicants to correct incidents on the scale or with the documentation required.
According to the FSS-CCOO, the timetable chosen for dealing with the allegations involves risks that go beyond the mere delay in settling the claims. Europa Press noted that the union had warned of the possibility that postponing the exam would bring multiplier effects: including the delay in the integration of new residents, the start of their training phase and the exacerbation of the staff shortages already identified in the National Health System (SNS). The organization stressed that this context is particularly worrying given the ongoing difficulties in recruiting and retaining health professionals. In this sense, the union statement quoted by Europa Press contained references to “very stressed staff and work overload” affecting various areas of the public health system.
As Europa Press published, the Ministry of Health attributed the delay to the delay in concluding the contract with the company in charge of data processing and to the extension of the registration deadline – which extended to September 18 – as a result of technical incidents on the digital platform of the process. However, according to the FSS-CCOO, these reasons are not sufficient to justify the delay, since, in its opinion, these are foreseeable and avoidable organizational problems. The union insisted on demanding maximum involvement and speed of resolution and called on Health to strengthen the resources – both material and human – necessary to ensure that all claims are appropriately resolved.
Europa Press also reported that the current call for specialized health training has provisionally approved 34,553 people to fill one of the 12,366 places on offer. This offer is aimed at university graduates in the fields of medicine, pharmacy, nursing, psychology, chemistry, biology and physics. According to Europa Press, the new call for applications increases the number of places available by 423 compared to the previous year, which corresponds to an increase of 3.5 percent.
Despite this growth, the current situation continues to be characterized by strong demand and obstacles in the management and reporting of places on the SNS, as the union highlights in statements obtained by Europa Press. In this context, CCOO emphasized the need to develop the process with the greatest possible transparency and effectiveness, which requires urgent adjustments both to provide access on a level playing field and to address the fundamental deficiencies identified in the organization of these access tests to health training.
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