The General Nursing Council (CGE) has warned that Spain needs around 123,000 nurses to reach the average number of professionals by the inhabitants of European countries. A figure that was increased from previous available data, when they established it was needed 95,000.
“The war against the shortage of nurses has existed for years in our country, with great inequalities between the autonomous communities. We are light years away from neighboring nations”, criticized the president of the General Nursing Council, Florentino Pérez Raya, during the presentation this Monday of the new study on ‘The situation of the nursing profession. Human resources report. 2023’.
The study was prepared by the Spanish Institute for Nursing Research of the CGE. The document reflects the figures of the profession in Spain in 2023, including data on the number of nurses in relation to the population by communities and provinces, the needs of nurses to reach the average of the data that European countries have. It also contains information regarding retirements which will be produced.
As the study points out, there are 345,000 nurses in Spain, of whom 77% work in hospitals, 19% in primary care, 1.8% in specialist training and 1.5% in emergencies and emergencies.
Thus, the document indicates that Spain has a ratio of 6.3 nurses per thousand inhabitants, while at European level, the ratio is 8.83 nurses per thousand inhabitants.. “There are still politicians who doubt this information, I would only tell them to go to any health center in our country and ask those in charge if they can find nurses,” said the secretary general of the General Nursing Council, Diego Ayuso.
With this data, the CGE estimates that 122,993 nurses are needed, or 40% more than the 345,000 that currently exist in Spain. “NOur country ranks sixth among the bottom 21 countries. of the EU. There are countries like Norway (ratio 21.68), Austria or Iceland which triple the number of professionals compared to Spain,” added Ayuso.
At this point, Ayuso explained that “there is a lack of professionals in all areas of care”, but, in particular, “in primary care “This number needs to be doubled to be able to provide a comprehensive approach to care within the family and community.”
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