Panama’s Minister of Health, Fernando Boyd Galindo, has announced a plan to establish a mandatory national entrance exam for all medical schools. The proposal aims to address a critical shortage of internship positions and concerns over the quality of new doctors. Authorities revealed the plan this week as a growing number of graduates overwhelm the public health system’s capacity for practical training.
The Ministry of Health (Minsa) is evaluating the creation of a standardized admissions filter, similar to the one used by the University of Panama. This comes in response to a sustained increase in medical graduates, insufficient internship placements, and detected deficiencies in the academic training of new physicians. A technical table involving university deans, health authorities, and academic teams is analyzing the measure.
In an interview with La Prensa, Minister Boyd Galindo acknowledged the systemic imbalance. He stated that the public system cannot absorb the annual number of graduates for the required practical training. This training is a mandatory step for obtaining a professional license.
“Each year more doctors graduate and we do not have enough positions for all of them,” admitted the head of Health. [Translated from Spanish]
The immediate impact is increased pressure on teaching hospitals. Both Minsa and the Social Security Fund (CSS) face limitations in offering internship slots, a situation that generates tensions annually. According to official projections, Panama requires between 400 and 500 new doctors per year. The number of students beginning the career, however, far exceeds that figure.
A Public Policy Imperative for Medical Training
Minister Boyd Galindo framed the issue as one of essential public policy, not merely an academic concern. He explained that medicine is unique because the state participates directly in the professional habilitation process. Unlike lawyers or architects, a doctor must complete an internship in a public institution to practice legally. This state role obligates the government to plan how many doctors it can train and accommodate within its hospitals.
The lack of coordinated planning has also impacted the internship model itself. Boyd Galindo noted that many countries have moved away from a two-year internship to a scheme with one year of internship and one year of externship, a model Panama may need to review. The core problem extends beyond duration to the quality of the educational experience. The internship is designed as a strictly teaching period where doctors acquire practical skills under direct supervision. The surge in interns has overwhelmed this system.
“Before, one doctor supervised three or four interns. Today there are wards with 20 or 25. How do you train a doctor like that? How do they all examine the same patient? That serves no teaching purpose,” he warned. [Translated from Spanish]
This overcrowding compromises the educational mission of teaching hospitals. It prevents the close mentorship and hands-on patient care that define effective clinical training.
Complaints About Graduate Preparedness Prompt Action
Adding to the logistical crisis are persistent complaints about the academic preparedness of some graduates. Boyd Galindo revealed he has received numerous reports from hospital directors and teachers regarding the low level of preparation among recently graduated doctors. These concerns have become a major driver for regulatory reform.
The minister stressed the high stakes of medical education. A poorly prepared professional in this field carries risks not found in other careers. As one corrective measure, Minsa recently raised the minimum passing score for the basic medical certification exam, an indepensible prerequisit for entering an internship, from 41 to 45 points. Officials plan to increase it further to 70.
Performance data from this exam has fueled the debate. Official results obtained by students from private universities on the basic certification test were a key catalyst for discussions about regulating admissions. The minister clarified that the goal is not to single out any specific institution but to standardize training and control unplanned growth across the board.
“It is not about pointing to one particular university, but about standardizing training and controlling growth without planning,” he clarified. [Translated from Spanish]
The proposed admission filters seek to ensure that available spots in hospitals and health centers are used efficiently. They also aim to increase the likelihood that students who enter the career can successfully complete their training.
Hospital System at a Breaking Point
The situation on the ground in Panama’s hospitals is reaching a critical point. Paulino Vigil De Gracia, the national director of Teaching and Research for the CSS, echoed the minister’s concerns. He warned that hospitals simply have no more capacity to take on additional interns without sacrificing supervision quality. The infrastructure and senior staff necessary for proper education are already stretched too thin.
This bottleneck creates a frustrating paradox for new graduates. They have completed years of expensive academic study but cannot finish the final, state-mandated step to begin their careers. The resulting backlog threatens to undermine the entire healthcare workforce pipeline. For the minister, collaboration is the only path forward to prevent a systemic collapse.
“We all have to agree: universities, the State, and the health sector. If we do not order this now, the system will collapse,” he warned. [Translated from Spanish]
Elevating standards, in his view, does not mean closing opportunities. The goal is to guarantee that those who access the medical career have the necessary preparation and vocation. A rigorous, unified entrance exam is presented as the fairest and most effective tool to achieve this. This reform is positioned as a broader effort to modernize Panama’s public services.
The Ministry of Health’s proposal now moves into a phase of detailed technical analysis with universities. The outcome will shape the future of medical education in Panama for a generation. Implementing a national admissions filter represents a significant shift toward centralized planning in a field where the stakes for public welfare could not be higher.