Andorra's healthcare at breaking point amid doctor shortage
Population growth and an ageing workforce have left primary care saturated and specialties with months-long waits.
Key Points
- Population growth and rising demand outstrip care capacity, saturating primary care.
- Fewer young doctors are replacing retiring senior physicians, threatening generational renewal.
- Specialist shortages cause months-long waits and delayed diagnoses for patients.
- Rising living costs and loss of competitiveness hinder recruitment and retention, prompting calls for urgent reform.
Andorra is experiencing one of the most critical moments in its healthcare system. Population growth is outpacing care capacity and generational renewal among doctors is not guaranteed, leaving specialties with months-long waits and primary care saturated. Diagnoses are arriving late.
The system’s problems stem from accumulated strain over years rather than a single cause. As senior physicians retire, fewer young doctors are replacing them while demand for care keeps rising. The resulting shortage of specialists produces delays that directly affect patients’ health.
Rising cost of living and a loss of competitiveness make it harder to recruit and retain professionals, who increasingly find better conditions abroad. That shift has left the country’s health services in an unprecedented state of fragility.
Health professionals consulted agree that the model needs deep, immediate reform. The future of the system will depend on the ability to attract new doctors and to adapt services to a country whose demographic and social profile has changed.
Original Sources
This article was aggregated from the following Catalan-language sources: