Deputies approve bill to reduce medical internships

The Chamber of Deputies approved this Tuesday in a second discussion a bill that reduces from one year to six months the duration of the mandatory medical internship that graduates of the program must complete to obtain their exequatur .

With the approval in a second discussion, the bill has already passed all the tests in the Chamber of Deputies and is now headed to the Senate , where it must complete the same process before formally becoming law .

The change approved by the deputies eliminates laws 146-67 and 478-73 , which mandate that medical internships must last one year. Under the new law , if enacted by President Luis Abinader, only six months of internships under state supervision will be required.

One of the project's arguments is that medicine is the only career that requires a year of internship as a prerequisite to obtaining professional certification .

In fact, the deputies, in the middle of the session, argued that many medical graduates leave universities and have to wait a long time before completing their internships due to the backlog of recent graduates who have not yet completed their studies.

According to the project, which is a proposal by former representative Agustín Burgos and legislator Diómedes Rojas, the exequatur will only be issued to those who have completed their internship in centers belonging to the public health network, specifically Primary Care Centers .

According to the proposal, the National Health Service (NHS) will be the sole entity responsible for authorizing and assigning medical internships throughout the country, specifically in Primary Care Centers . Internships in private centers may only be authorized in special cases and under specific conditions.

Article 7 of the law stipulates that if the internship is conducted in a private center, it will be only "under special conditions ," and that the private clinic will be responsible for remunerating the doctors' work, and the Ministry of Public Health must spearhead the curriculum.

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Distant provinces give more points

The project introduces an academic scoring system that encourages interns to choose remote provinces with less medical coverage. These scores will be taken into account when applying for medical residency .

For example, provinces such as Pedernales, Elías Piña, Montecristi, and Dajabón will award five points , while the localities of Santo Domingo, the National District, and Santiago will only earn one point.

Foreign doctors

The law establishes that those who have studied medicine at foreign universities must complete a six-month internship at an authorized public center upon returning to the country, as determined by the SNS.

The project establishes that no medical intern may practice his profession outside the hospital or town where he was assigned, except in cases of extreme urgency .

In addition, sanctions are established for doctors who fail to fulfill their duties and for officials who issue false certifications of internship completion.

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