This week, representatives from WHO/Europe, European and national trade unions, and health workforce organizations participated in a timely and crucial event, entitled “Better working conditions for healthcare professionals in the European Union (EU)”, at the European Parliament, in Brussels, Belgium.
Aimed at highlighting the difficult working conditions that health-care professionals in the EU are facing and exploring solutions for improvement, the event was also an opportunity to focus attention on and encourage implementation of the new “Framework for action on the health and care workforce in the WHO European Region 2023–2030”.
With all countries in the wider WHO European Region struggling to retain and recruit sufficient numbers of health and care workers with the right mix of skills to meet the growing and changing needs of patients, the Framework is a practical tool to help states fix the health workforce crisis.
Speaking at the event, Dr Tomas Zapata, Head of the Health Workforce and Service Delivery Unit, WHO/Europe, stressed: “We must invest more in the health workforce, improve training and salaries, and attract new generations. The time to act is now. We must end the current crisis of health professionals in Europe”.
The Framework, which was adopted by all 53 Member States of the Region at the 73rd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe in October 2023, provides 5 key actions that countries can take:
- Retain and recruit. This includes policy actions to improve the working conditions of health and care workers, including reducing heavy workloads and excessive working hours, providing more flexibility in contract arrangements and ensuring fair remuneration. These actions will help improve the mental health and well-being of health workers and increase the attractiveness of health jobs, including in rural areas, for existing health workers and for new generations of young students.
- Build supply. This means modernizing health education and training, including building digital health competencies to create a fit-for-purpose health workforce for present and future health services demands and needs.
- Optimize performance. This includes measures to increase the efficiency of the limited numbers of health workers available in the health system. It is about innovative reconfiguration of health services, using digital health technologies, and redefining teams and skill mixes so that the actions they perform add value.
- Plan. Health workforce planning is essential for anticipating the future needs of the health system and for taking actions to meet them now. Strengthening the capacity of human resources for health (HRH) units and improving HRH information systems can contribute to this.
- Invest. This involves increasing public investment and optimizing the use of funds, while making the economic and social case for investing in the health and care workforce.
Following the event, Dr Zapata commented: “Speakers and participants highlighted how improving working conditions for health workers is just one piece of the jigsaw for solving the health workforce crisis. By investing in and caring for those who care for us, everyone benefits”.
WHO/Europe will be further promoting the Framework over the coming months, with the intention that actions to resolve the health workforce crisis are being taken by 2030.