Last December, the European Commission adopted a green paper on the EU workforce for health. This marks the beginning of a consultation period which aims to identify common responses to the many challenges facing the health workforce in Europe. A high quality health workforce is crucial for successful health systems. The health workforce plays an important role in the EU economy, accounting for about 10% of all jobs. In addition, 70% of EU healthcare budgets are allocated to salaries and employment related issues.
The aim of the green paper is to increase the visibility of these issues, to generate a clearer picture of the extent to which local and/or national health managers face the same challenges and to engage stakeholders in the debate so as to help those responsible across Europe to address these problems effectively.
The results of the consultation will feed in to what the EU can do to support member states in tackling these challenges.
http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_systems/docs/workforce_gp_en.pdf
