Health workers in Europe are migrating to other countries in the region in search of better working conditions, career prospects and work-life balance. Unfortunately, the countries they leave behind are left with fewer health workers and poor access to healthcare, while the richer destination countries reap the benefits of receiving many health workers.
To ensure that their citizens can receive care from sufficient health workers, Europe’s national governments should invest in their health system and make the health sector more attractive, so their health workers don’t leave. Understanding, for example, the reasons why health workers leave, the number of health workers that leave and where they are leaving to, is key to improving health workforce policies and ultimately, access to healthcare. However, concrete and consistent data on health worker mobility is lacking.
In our new infographic, we recommend how the European Commission can improve health worker mobility data, to understand where Europe’s health workers are going. This can support governments with steering health workforce policies, to retain their health workers and ultimately improve access to healthcare for Europe’s citizens.
Read more about our work and advocacy on health worker mobility on our Pillars of Health project website, including our Cross-country analysis report on health worker mobility across the European Union and neighbouring countries (on which the infographic is based).
Please click here for the PDF version of the infographic (with clickable links).
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