Plan to combat doctor shortage

No entrance test for medical studies in Italy

In Italy, medical students will no longer have to take an entrance test in future (symbolic image).

(Bild: APA/ROBERT JAEGER)

There are to be no more entrance tests for medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine in Italy in future. A bill to this effect was passed on Wednesday. The government also wants to make it easier to employ doctors from abroad.

A decree that was passed during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 is to be extended. Both measures are intended to combat the shortage of doctors. Since 2005, one in ten doctors who have retired have not been replaced. 

Now more young doctors are to be trained. In the 2023/24 academic year, 19,544 places were allocated, which is already 23% more than in the same period in 2022/23. The next step is to lift the admission restrictions for medical degree courses. "We will give our young people the opportunity to enrol freely in the faculties of medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine," said MP Roberto Marti.

Doctors' union: "Unreasonable regulation"
 In Italy, the Matura grade currently accounts for 20 percent of the application, with the remaining 80 percent being accounted for by an entrance test. The plan has been criticized by the doctors' union Fnomceo. "We are clearly against it. This is absolutely not a sensible regulation." In ten years' time, many graduates would no longer have any chance of finding a job as a doctor, said Fnomceo President Filippo Anelli.