As part of a consultation by the European Commission on priorities, strategic orientations and needs of the EU4Health Programme, the EU’s flagship funding programme for health-related capactiy building, CESI reiterated the particular need to address an increasingly unbalanced distribution of health care professionals across the EU and its neighbouring countries and to take steps to encourage patient-staff quotas in the Member States.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “While there is already a shortage of health care professionals in most EU Member States in any way, the situation is all the more dramatic in less advantaged regions and EU neighbouring states such as the Balkan countries, where a real brain drain towads the EU probes already underfinanced health care systems. The EU needs to do more to address push and pull factors for health care staff in less developed and neighbouring regions of the EU, including through its EU4Health Programme, in order to encourage a more balanced geographical distribution of health care staff on the European continent.”

He added: “Next to a more balanced distribution of healthcare professionals, it is also key to raise the absolute number of staff in the sector, as there is a shortage almost in every country and every professional function in the sector. This requires measures for a better public perception of health professions, better pay for instance for nurses, and improved working and employment conditions across the board. Work in the sector needs to become more attractive. Additionally, Member States should pursue an ambitious patient-staff quota so that staff numbers are raised to levels that allow for quality healthcare provision everywhere. This requires significant expenditure, but not least the Covid crisis has shown that this is an investment that pays off multiple times: For workers in terms of less stress, illness, and absenteeism, subsequently for patients in terms of less morbidity and mortality due to better care, and for the sustainability of public finance and public health systems because a healthier citizenry and workforce produces better in economic terms and contributes more to social welfare than an ill population. The EU4Health Programme should foresee capacity building in this respect.”

For further information about the need for measures against a brain drain in the health care sector and for patient-staff quotas in the Member States, see also CESI’s recent position paper on the topic.