More doctors to be trained at Swiss universities

About a third of the doctors practising here are from other countries, as Switzerland does not train enough of its own medics. Now the govement wants to fix this. (SRF/swissinfo.ch)

It’s investing CHF100 million to offer additional places for students in human medicine. The aim is to tu out up to 1,300 doctors of medicine per year, a quarter more than at present.

Universities – including those that do not currently have medical faculties – are now competing for the govement cash. There is a strong argument for distributing the funds among Switzerland’s five existing medical faculties, as it is said to be less expensive to expand facilities than to create new ones.

As this is a one-off cash injection, the universities that receive the govement funds will have to be able to secure long term funding to keep up the training.

It’s not only university places that need to be increased, but also training places in hospitals. At the moment, these are very limited. Cantonal govements may be called upon to invest more taxpayers’ money in creating facilities for fledgling doctors.

SWI swissinfo...