LA PAZ (Sputnik) – Almost a thousand medical students from private universities in Bolivia asked the government to join the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in exchange for receiving their professional degrees without passing the degree exam, a local newspaper.
–
“We appear before his authority to request (…) the suspension of the undergraduate exam and also expedite the processing of our medical degree degrees, a situation that would allow us to work in this noble work for the benefit of those who at this time They need it, “the students said in a letter to Health Minister Eidy Roca.
This was the third exceptional degree request made by students who completed their medical careers at eight private universities, and even completed internships and compulsory service in rural areas, said the newspaper Página Siete, which published the letter.
Similar actions before the two previous ministers of Health during the pandemic had no response, the newspaper said.
The publication quoted university professor Gabriela Quiroga, coordinator of the students’ proposal, assuring that the pandemic had truncated the final steps of the professional titling process, including the degree exams.
“They have fulfilled the entire academic curriculum, they have fulfilled all the requirements to graduate as doctors and the only thing they lack is the paper that says they are graduates,” said the teacher.
The request of the future doctors was disclosed as reports of understaffing increased in public hospitals whose workers were infected with the new coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.
The shortage of medical professionals was one of the deficiencies of the Bolivian public health system detected before the pandemic, particularly since the beginning of 2019 when the Evo Morales government created a Universal Health System in favor of citizens excluded from insurance. regular employees.
The students added in their letter that they left it up to the Government to define the type of contract and the remuneration they would receive for their services.
– .
