Seven foreign doctors who work in hospitals of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) since 2017, stopped doing so in January due to the lack of renewal of permits.
This is the requirement of approval of the equalization examination of qualifications prepared by the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and with the endorsement of the National Council of Rectors (Conare).
The foreign doctors say that the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Costa Rica invented the requirement, because they came to the country to solve the urgent need of professionals convened by the CCCSS in that year.
Therefore, they went to the Administrative Litigation Court of the Second Judicial Circuit of Goicoechea where they requested to suspend the refusal to renew the authorization because it was not a requirement for the new permits.
The lawyer of the doctors, Wálter Brenes, indicated that in the regulation that governs the granting of said authorizations, the approval of said proof is not established as a requirement.
Brenes noted that the hiring of the seven doctor occurred with the approval of the Ministry of Health and the CCSS declared a state of emergency due to the lack of specialists to meet the needs of the population which included long waiting lists in both external consultation and surgeries.
The Medical Manager of the CCSS, Robert Cervantes, acknowledged that the institution is affected by the measure, and in fact, they have only been able to fill two of the seven places through the social service.
He hopes that those needs will be resolved by next year.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons, recognized that in 2017 they were granted “temporary” permits due to the lack of specialists in the country.
However, the “validation” test carried out by the UCR is a requirement that allows the doctor to demonstrate suitability before the national academic authorities; therefore, as it was not approved by the claimants, the College could not continue granting temporary permits to foreign medical specialists, who did not demonstrate suitability as general practitioners.