Summary
SEMES’ long road to specialty status for emergency medicine in Spain
Affiliation of the authors
DOI
Quote
González Armengol JJ, Aramburu Vilariño F, Toranzo Cepeda T, Vázquez Lima MJ. SEMES’ long road to specialty status for emergency medicine in Spain. Emergencias. 2024;36:367-74
Summary
July 2 of this year saw the publication of Spanish Royal Decree 610/2024, which establishes emergency medicine as an official specialization. This event represents the culmination of a long-running effort to improve the care of patients in the emergency and urgent care system and throughout the national health service. This article offers a brief account of some of the legal, administrative, and political steps the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine(SEMES) took to achieve this goal over the course of nearly 40 years. The effort
has involved many SEMES members, who strictly speaking had the sole obligation of knowing how to care appropriately for patients based on clinical expertise along with organizational, scientific, and other professional skills. Competences in these areas have been shown to fall short in Spain. The article provides examples of some of the bright lights and dim shadows in our rule of law. Nonetheless, the long road traveled has also shown us how skills and knowledge are developed in adverse circumstances and crises, provided there is vocation for public service.