Vigo will host for the second time in its history the celebration of the MIR exam for graduates in Medicine who aspire to obtain a position as a resident doctor and train in a specialty during the next four years. The first time had been in 1979.
The exam will be held on March 27, 2021, the eve of the Reconquest of Vigo, at three in the afternoon, and in all probability it will be on the university campus, as it has been happening in other Spanish cities.
Until now, the University of Santiago was the only Galician venue for the MIR exam, which had been held in recent years in 21 Spanish cities. In March of next year there will be 7 more cities. In addition to Vigo and Santiago, it is celebrated in Cádiz, Granada, Malaga, Seville, Badajoz, Cáceres, Murcia, Albacete, Ciudad Real, Madrid, Alicante, Valencia, Salamanca, Valladolid, León, Logroño, Barcelona, Girona, Zaragoza, Pamplona, Bilbao, Santander, Oviedo, Palma de Mallorca, Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Vigo was the headquarters of the MIR in December 1979. The test that gives access in Spain to a position as a specialist doctor in training has existed as such since 1978. Before that, some hospitals called for positions, but most doctors obtained the Specialist degree in three years and previously enrolling in the Official College of Physicians. The first tests were held in 23 cities, including two in Galicia, Santiago and A Coruña, according to a resolution published in the BOE on November 27, 1978 by the Undersecretary of Health. The following year Vigo was also the venue for this exam, specifically in the old Casa de América, a professional training center that was next to the old Red Cross Hospital. But after that, Santiago was the only Galician headquarters of the MIR.
The pediatrician at the Teis Carlos Príncipe health center is one of the active doctors who did his MIR examination at the Casa de América in Vigo. He did it in December 1979 and on January 15, 1980 he was already doing the specialty at the old Xeral Hospital in Vigo. At that time there were 14,000 applicants for only about 1,700 places.
In last year’s call, more than 14,000 applicants for 7,512 places of different specialties were presented and it was already a historical record. The maximum number of places had been offered a decade ago, in 2010, with a total of 6,795. However, given the difficulties in hiring doctors in certain specialties and in the face of complaints from professional groups and autonomous communities, places were increased and next year they will rise a little more to 7,989 places.
El Cunqueiro trains 74 doctors and 15 nurses who are first-year residents this year.
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