On September 29, CESI´s Expert Commission ‘Health’ gathered online, representing many CESI trade unions from the healthcare sector.

On this constituent meeting, Esther Reyes (SATSE, Spain) was elected as President; Anneke Westerlaken (CNV Connectief, the Netherlands) and Giovanni Recchia (FIALS – CONFSAL, Italy) as vice-presidents.

Major concerns were raised during the meeting. The pressure on healthcare workers during the pandemic was unbearable – and has remained unproportionally high since then. Nurses and doctors face understaffing, exorbitant working hours, insufficient breaks and holidays, lack of equipment and infrastructure, moderate renumeration. Added to this comes the lack of recognition in many cases.

President Esther Reyes made it very clear: ‘The severe physical and mental consequences lead more and more healthcare workers to abandon their jobs, to leave the healthcare sector, and – in some particularly vulnerable states- to even turn their back to their home countries. The perspectives of a continuous lack of sufficient human and financial resources in the sector will make it difficult or even impossible to face these challenges.’

The trade union representatives from different member states and neighbouring countries voiced sharp criticism regarding the working conditions in their respective healthcare sector. And solutions on how to address them were presented.

Paloma Repila Arenas (SATSE, Spain) emphasized the role of trade unionism, collective bargaining and social dialogue in framing national responses to crisis prevention or management: ‘Individually we are one drop, together we are an ocean!’, she concluded. And Anneke Westerlaken (CNV Connectief, the Netherlands), who presented the impact of staff shortages and who gave examples for actions to fairly reward and esteem healthcare workers and their qualities, concluded: ‘We must invest in our healthcare workers – to retain them!’

Experts from the European Commission and the European Parliament outlined the different possible responses at EU level. Among them, European Commission representative Maya Matthews pointed at the different measures which have been taken by the EU as a response to the pandemic. She concluded however that more will be needed to build resilient health systems at EU level: ‘For the moment we plan for now. But we should be planning for the future.’

Klaus Heeger, CESI’s Secretary-General, closed the meeting by advocating in favour of making healthcare one of the main priorities of the European Commission in the years to come: ‘Let us learn from this pandemic and let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past. Healthcare is an essential pillar of our societies and its workforce should be treated accordingly.’