Ecuador to hire 5,000 doctors

Ecuador’s Ministry of Public Health (MSP) plans to hire more than 5,000 public health doctors in the coming months, it announced on Tuesday.

MSP said it was focusing on the areas of anesthesiology, emergenciology, epidemiology and physical medicine as well as general practice. Besides recruiting at Ecuador’s medical schools, the ministry is seeking doctors from Spain and Cuba.

The government is expanding its public health services and recently announced major changes to its Social Security health system, removing age and pre-exisiting medical condition restrictions on access.

There are currently 140 hospitals in the country’s public health network. Twenty-two are new and 24 others are being remodeled.