State-Funded Medical Residency Positions in Lithuania for 2025-2026 Academic Year

The Ministry of Health Proposes More State-Funded Medical Residency Study Places for 2025–2026

The Ministry of Health (MoH) proposes to admit 365 individuals to state-funded medical residency studies in the 2025–2026 academic year, the same as in 2024–2025, and to allocate an additional 20 state-funded places (a total of 385). For dentistry residency studies, 10 state-funded places are proposed. Additionally, more attention will be given to emergency medical care, child and adolescent psychiatry, and clinical pharmacology.During the Thursday meeting of the Committee for the Formation of the State-Ordered Training of National Health System Specialists (VUK), the Ministry presented these proposals, which are currently under consideration. Once aligned with VUK, the proposals will be submitted to the Ministry of Education, Science, and Sports.

“The shortage of doctors in the country is a pressing issue today, so it is very important to implement targeted measures to attract young medical professionals to the labor market. We hope to contribute to faster preparation of future healthcare specialists by creating additional state-funded places. If our proposals are approved and funding is allocated, this would be the first increase in the number of state-funded medical residency places since 2019,” said Minister of Health Marija Jakubauskienė.

It is planned to increase the number of state-funded residency study places by 20 places each year. 110 individuals will be admitted to non-state-funded medical residency studies, with this number reduced by the additional state-funded places. For non-state-funded dentistry residency studies, 20 places are proposed. These proposals regarding state-funded places were submitted by MoH for VUK consideration, based on insights from the Expert Council on the need for specialists and admissions to residency studies. The proposals were developed with greater attention to emergency medical care, child and adolescent psychiatry, and clinical pharmacology. MoH proposed that VUK approve the Expert Council’s recommendations for all remaining medical residency programs (55 out of 59).

Focus Areas for Additional State-Funded Places

For the 2024–2025 academic year, 18 state-funded places were allocated for training emergency medical care specialists. For 2025–2026, the Expert Council proposed admitting 20 individuals. However, given the growing demand for these specialists, MoH proposes admitting 22 individuals to state-funded places. For the 2024–2025 academic year, nine state-funded places were allocated for child and adolescent psychiatry. For 2025–2026, the Expert Council proposed reducing this number to eight. However, taking into account the persistent and growing need, as well as the fact that teams of child and adolescent psychiatrists will begin operating in mental health centers from the second half of 2025 and will expand across Lithuania within three years, and noting the shortage of forensic psychiatry experts, MoH proposed maintaining the number of places and allocating nine state-funded places. One clinical pharmacology specialist is prepared each academic year. For 2025–2026, the Expert Council also proposed preparing one specialist. However, considering that clinical pharmacology specialists have only recently begun to be trained, there are only 14 active licensed specialists in the country, and these specialists are needed in MoH, the State Medicines Control Agency under MoH, healthcare institutions, and universities, MoH proposed admitting five individuals to state-funded places.

The additional 20 state-funded medical residency study places are proposed to be allocated, reflecting all Expert Council recommendations, to the following medical residency programs: obstetrics and gynecology (1), anesthesiology and resuscitation (1), cardiology (2), neurology (3), ophthalmology (2), emergency medicine (2), family medicine (5), child and adolescent psychiatry (2), and internal medicine (2).

Lietuvosvalstybe.com
Sources: Ministry of Health  of the Republic of Lithuania
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