ACN
The Canary Islands is one of the autonomous communities of the Spanish State with fewer health professionals per inhabitant, according to the 2005 Social Indicators statistics from the National Institute of Statistics (INE). While in the Canary Islands there are 390 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants, the national average is 450 doctors.
These official figures appear a few days after, following World Health Day, Canarian doctors called on the State to increase the number of places available in Canarian universities where health professions can be studied, given that the lack of professionals, and the fact that many of them decide to go to work outside the Islands, has brought a multitude of foreign professionals to public health.
In fact, the request to have more doctors in Spain was the focus of the demands of this World Health Day. Precisely, the president of the Official College of Doctors of Las Palmas highlighted on April 6 that last year 98 doctors from Gran Canaria went to the United Kingdom, 9,000 throughout Spain to Portugal, the United Kingdom and France. "Paradoxically", the lack of specialists means that non-EU doctors have to be hired, with more than 300 members. The solution, according to the president of the Medical Union, Santiago González-Jaraba, is to increase the number of places at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, from the current 55 to about 80, remaining the same as Tenerife.
And it is that at the national level, the Canary Islands is the third autonomous community with the fewest doctors per 100,000 inhabitants, only surpassed in negative terms by the figures of Castilla la Mancha (347 doctors) and Murcia (371 doctors). By provinces, in Las Palmas there are 386 doctors per 100,000 people and in the province of Tenerife there are 395.
In addition to doctors, the statistics also include the number of dentists/stomatologists, pharmacists, nurses/ATs and, finally, podiatrists.
In the case of dentists and stomatologists, the Canary Islands is the second autonomous community with the fewest professionals per 100,000 inhabitants, with 39.2 professionals registered, a figure eight points below the national average, established at 47.24. Only the figure for Castilla León, with 37.61, is lower than that of the peninsula.
Where the Canary Islands does have the lowest rate in the entire State is in the number of pharmacists, since in the Islands there are 104.57 professionals in this sector per 100,000 inhabitants. The State average is 29 points above, exactly 133.43 pharmacists.
The number of ATs and nursing graduates is the second lowest in the entire State, according to the INE. In the Canary Islands there are 416.31 nurses per 100,000 inhabitants, a figure well below the national average, established at 521.37 people. Only the community of Murcia presents figures lower than those of the Canary Islands, registering 366 nurses per 100,000 inhabitants.
Finally, the Canary Islands is also the autonomous community with the lowest percentage of podiatrists in the entire State. While in the Canary Islands the statistics show that there are 2.47 podiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants, the national average is much higher, at 7.94.
