CalcalistHealth15:08

Israel Sets National Targets for Specialist Doctors by 2035

By אדריאן פילוט

Translated & summarized from Calcalist by baba

BusinessNeutral tone

Hebrew · 9 newsrooms covering

Israel's Ministry of Health has set national targets for specialist doctors by 2035, aiming to increase the total number of doctors by 42% and specialists by 57% over the next decade. The plan addresses uneven distribution across medical fields and geographic regions, with specific goals for internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics. The initiative involves expanding medical school admissions and implementing incentives to encourage doctors to work in underserved areas. These changes are incorporated into the 2025 Arrangements Law.

The story in 6 lines · by baba

Israel's Ministry of Health has established national targets for specialist doctors by 2035, a first for the country.
The number of doctors in Israel is projected to grow 42% to 53,500 by 2035, with specialists up 57% to 32,000.
The plan aims to increase the specialist ratio per 100,000 population by up to 35% in certain fields.
Specific targets are set for fields like internal medicine (6,100 specialists), family medicine (4,530), and pediatrics (4,030).
The Ministry will use incentives, including funding for medical studies in exchange for service, to achieve these goals.
The changes are part of the 2025 Arrangements Law and follow a previous agreement to establish a joint planning body.

For the first time, Israel's Ministry of Health has established national targets for the number of specialist doctors required in each medical field and district by 2035. These targets were developed by an advisory committee on medical workforce planning, chaired by Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman Tov. Previously, the planning of medical specializations was handled by the Scientific Council of the Israel Medical Association for approximately 50 years.

Bar Siman Tov stated that without intervention, the healthcare system would face a catastrophe. The Ministry projects that the total number of doctors in Israel will increase by 42% over the next decade, from 37,600 to 53,500, raising the ratio per 1,000 people from 3.6 to 4.2, exceeding the OECD average of 3.9. The number of active specialists is expected to surge by 57% to 32,000. This growth is supported by an expansion in medical school admissions, with plans to reach 2,000 students by 2030, and a decrease in graduates from overseas institutions due to the Yatziv reform.

The committee categorized medical fields into four groups, aiming for increases of 35%, 25%, or 15% in the specialist ratio per 100,000 population, or maintaining the current ratio. The baseline for these targets is the projected ratio for 2029. Director of Strategic and Economic Planning Rachel Brenner Shalom noted that past growth in specialists between 2015 and 2024 was only 15% overall and 6% per capita, with uneven distribution across fields.

Specific targets include increasing active specialists in internal medicine to 6,100 by 2035 (from 3,880), family medicine to 4,530 (from 2,630), pediatrics to 4,030 (from 2,750), and psychiatry to 1,580 (from 910). The plan aims for an equal specialist-to-population ratio across all districts, acknowledging different starting points, with the Northern district currently having significantly lower ratios in some specialties compared to the central district.

The plan involved input from various stakeholders, including hospital divisions, healthcare providers, and professional organizations. While the announcement does not detail an enforcement mechanism, Bar Siman Tov mentioned incentives such as programs funding medical studies for periphery residents in exchange for service commitments, integrated training programs, and future salary agreement incentives. The Ministry is also in negotiations with the Israel Medical Association regarding these changes, which are part of the 2025 Arrangements Law.