A Bill in Panama is Being Prepared to Reduce Medical Internships from Two Years to One.
The internship represents the final phase of clinical training that medical graduates must complete to become licensed. Panama is preparing a law to reduce medical internships from two years to one. Learn what the Ministry of Health is proposing and how it would change medical training.
If you thought your doctor in Panama looked like they were still in high school, Panama is preparing a bill to reduce medical internships from two years to one. Health Minister Fernando Boyd Galindo announced that the initiative is “almost finished”. “The law is already being worked on, it is almost finished, it is to modify the law to reduce the internship, since almost nowhere do two years of internship occur,” he explained during the presentation of the Ministry of Health (Minsa) budget for 2027 before the Budget Committee of the National Assembly. “Hospitals need to be adapted to be able to cover all the necessary teaching for everyone entering the internship,” he explained.
Two Years of Medical Internship in Panama.
The internship takes place after completing medical school and passing the certification exam. Those who obtain the highest scores can compete for a position at the Ministry of Health (MINSA) or the Social Security Fund (CSS) to complete this stage, which is necessary to obtain the qualifications required to practice as doctors. Currently, Panama maintains a two-year internship, while in most of the 18 Latin American countries analyzed in a study published in the Panamanian Medical Journal, this stage lasts one year. Chile registers between one and two years. The article, prepared by Paulino Vigil De Gracia, head of the National Department of Teaching and Research of the CSS, compares the models of medical training in the region.
The total time required to practice as a general practitioner also varies between countries. In Panama, the medical degree program includes six years of university studies and two years of internship, for a total of eight years. Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua also add up to eight years, although they include one or more years of mandatory social service. Cuba has the longest process in the comparison, at nine years: five years of university education, one year of internship, and three years of social service. In Brazil, on the other hand, the process takes six years, with five years of university education and one year of internship, without mandatory social service.
According to the analysis, most countries in the region maintain year-long internships under the responsibility of universities and without remuneration equivalent to formal employment. In some cases, students receive scholarships or stipends for their work in hospitals. Since 1959, the Panamanian model has included a two-year boarding school, during which students are considered public servants and receive a monthly salary that can exceed $2,000, including additional shift payments. According to the article, this model makes Panamanian inmates the highest paid in Latin America.
The internship is mainly carried out in public hospitals of the CSS and the Minsa, where interns acquire practical experience under medical supervision and attend to real and complex cases that complement their training. “We have a very well-paid public employee who is also a student. But he doesn’t belong to a university,” Vigil De Gracia points out. This combination of practical training, public employment, and limited university involvement distinguishes the Panamanian model. The government’s proposal seeks to reduce the internship to one year, which would require hospitals to reorganize their teaching and concentrate the training currently provided over two years into that single period.
