Ahead of European Patients’ Rights Day, Mariano Votta, Director of Active Citizenship Network, discusses how the event will tackle the skills shortage, medical desertification and job strain in the healthcare sector.
When it comes to public health, in the run-up to the elections, the European institutions are called upon to make a great effort of coherence and credibility towards the European citizens to keep moving closer to a European Health Union despite having recently cut €1bn in resources earmarked for it, as set out in the budget review recently approved by the Union.
How can European institutions contribute to making the health services of member states more resilient if funds for crisis preparedness programmes for national health systems are cut?
A second element of great concern is the shortage of health personnel in terms of workforce shortages and skills gaps. In Italy, for example, according to data recently published by the Gimbe Foundation, there is a shortage of more than 3,100 general practitioners, with the most critical situations in the large northern regions.
However, the phenomenon is not limited to one country; it affects the European Union as a whole. In this regard, in the context of the European Year of Skills, the Commission’s Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE) Report 2023 provides insights into persistent labour shortages and skills gaps in the EU.
Addressing EU labour shortages
The report looks at occupations and sectors expected to continue to face labour shortages, such as those linked to construction, healthcare, science, technology (especially information and communication technologies, ICT), engineering, and mathematics. This trend is likely to increase as the population ages and the green and digital transitions progress. In these last two aspects, the healthcare professions – in comparison with other areas of employment – show worrying delays that need to be addressed, as the graph below shows.
More strenuous working conditions and lower pay might explain the persistence of labour shortages in some occupations and sectors. In terms of overall job quality, reported job strain is significantly higher than average for workers in the health, residential care, and transport sectors, especially among nurses, carers, and drivers. Job strain was found to be substantially above the EU average (30%) for nurses (61%), carers (55%), drivers (44%), cooks and bartenders (43%), doctors (43%) and cleaners (36%).
In some jobs with more difficult working conditions, health and safety at work risks may be an additional factor contributing to labour shortages. In five out of six shortage occupations experiencing significantly higher levels of job strain, the proportion of workers reporting that their health and safety at work is at risk is also higher than the EU average. The highest levels of health and safety at work risks are reported by nurses (69%), drivers (53%), doctors (51%) and carers (50%). Based on the 2022 European Employment Services (EURES) report – which provides information at the occupational level – labour shortages are most evident for software and healthcare-related occupations, construction and engineering craft workers.
Nurses reported much higher than average exposure to all physical risks, physical demands, and social demands. A breakdown of the job quality index for shortage occupations experiencing above-average job strain reveals that work intensity is most severe for medical doctors and nurses, who report above-average levels of high-speed work, tight deadlines, and high emotional demands.
Neglecting the health workforce crisis jeopardises current and future preventive and care options for citizens. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and the health workforce are essential within healthcare systems, ensuring the well-being of citizens and fostering trust in the system. Their support is paramount. Ahead of the European elections, which steps should we prioritise to address this pressing concern? What actions must be urgently taken? While trust isn’t in doubt, there’s a pronounced call for investments in training, support, proximity, new communication tools, and more. These calls come from European citizens, patients, and all stakeholders, including health professionals and those who invest in innovation.
Looking ahead to European Patients’ Rights Day
This issue – addressed from a public policy perspective – will be the focus of the 18th edition of the European Patients’ Rights Day, as always organised at the European Parliament by Active Citizenship Network, the European branch of the Italian NGO Cittadinanzattiva, in its traditional multi-stakeholder format to embrace the voices of public institutions as well as those of professionals, the private sector, civil society and patients, who see in their daily lives the concrete possibility of relating directly with healthcare professionals dangerously reduced.
In the run-up to the European elections, this is a valuable opportunity to put public health issues back at the centre of the debate, with the intention of also indirectly contributing to the work of the current Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which is developing a strategy to strengthen the EU healthcare workforce.
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