Analyses

What: Medical degree programs for foreign students will discontinue as of October 2023 and will be replaced by domestic medical school places.

Why: Israel has a low rate of physicians per population compared with the OECD average (3.3 and 3.7 per 1000 population, respectively in 2019). Of these, 25% are aged 67+, and 40% are aged 45–66 and are due to reach retirement age soon (Haklay, et al., 2021). In addition, Israel has less than half the rate of medical graduates than the OECD average (7.2 per 100,000 population in Israel compared with an OECD average of 13.2), and 58% of doctors working in Israel have studied abroad compared with 19% in the OECD. This means that Israel is not training enough physicians domestically to replace the physicians that are due to retire. The rate of physicians is likely to drop significantly in the next decade, which may lead to staff shortages.

Currently, there are three international medical degree programs for overseas students. Overseas students mainly come from the USA, and most international students return to their home country upon graduation. At the same time, most Israelis study medicine abroad, as there are limited spots at Israeli medical schools.

In addition, a 2019 reform of the Ministry of Health (MOH) limits the recognition of foreign medical degrees (Yatziv, 2019). Students of universities that do not achieve world federation for medical education (WFME) accreditation will not be able to practice medicine in Israel from 2026. The MOH is estimating that this will cause a further drop in the number of new physicians; it is projected that in 2025, 32% of Israelis graduating from medical schools abroad will be graduates of universities that are not recognized by WFME standards (Mendelovich, Belinsky, Angel, Maoz, & Tzuker, 2022).

How: The council for higher education has created a plan to increase the number of domestic medical students in Israel to respond to the anticipated workforce challenges. As of October 2023, universities in Israel will cease to operate medical degree programs for foreign students. The change is expected to increase the number of domestic medical students by 130. The additional students will raise the total number of domestic medical students to 1000 a year.

The international medical degree programs have been a source of revenue for universities, as study fees for foreign students are substantially higher than those for Israeli students. Therefore, to compensate the universities for the relative loss and to incentivize them to accept more Israeli students, the government will be providing 30 million NIS for this plan.

Another bottleneck in the medical training process is the limited number of hospital departments that can train residents. The MOH is planning another reform to enlarge resident training capacity. The plan is to transfer part of the residents’ training to community settings, specifically for residents in gynecology, pediatrics, and geriatrics (Mendelovich, Belinsky, Angel, Maoz, & Tzuker, 2022).