The Granada Doctors’ Union is calling for a special arrangement for working GPs and paediatricians in retirement to be extended beyond the end of the year. Otherwise, no further doctors could join the scheme from 2027, the union warns. It fears further staffing shortages in Spain’s medical primary care.
The proposal comes from a report by Vicente Matas for the union, which Spanish trade media reported on 12 November. The organisation also wants the arrangement extended to other specialisms facing staff shortages, particularly in district hospitals and in hard-to-fill posts. It also proposes allowing voluntary continued employment until the age of 72, rather than the current 70, provided the person’s health permits.
The special arrangement allows certain GPs and paediatricians in the state health system to continue working while drawing 75 per cent of their initially recognised statutory retirement pension. It applies to employees with the relevant public-law employment status. Under certain conditions, doctors who have already retired can also return to work and use the scheme.
The current deadline runs until 31 December 2026. Anyone already covered by the arrangement on that date may, under the law, continue combining work and pension until their active service ends. So the scheme closing to new entrants would not mean that all doctors already taking part had to leave at the turn of the year.
In February, Spain’s Ministry of Social Security said that more than 1,200 healthcare workers had used the scheme between 2023 and 2025. The figure refers to that period, not to how many doctors are still participating now.
The union sees particular risks for remote municipalities and rural areas if no further doctors join the scheme. Its proposal, however, concerns primary care as a whole and is not limited to rural doctors Continuing to employ older professionals can temporarily help cover vacancies; it is no substitute for attracting new recruits over the longer term.
Spain’s society for family and community medicine had also drawn attention to the approaching generational change. In September 2025, it expected around one in three rural doctors to retire within five years. This was an earlier forecast, not a new survey conducted in November 2026. In March 2026, the government cited, among other measures, more training places and initiatives to fill hard-to-fill posts.
Editor: Clara Simonichek (Article created with AI assistance).