OASES project: promoting evidence-based reforms on medical deserts

The OASES project aims to strengthen the capacity of public health authorities to reform their health systems and address all the key issues to successfully deal with the challenges posed by medical deserts. The project has adopted a broad definition of “medical desert”: it encompasses any situation in which critical issues arise in the meeting of health needs, demand and supply of health care, i.e. not only the simple shortage of health professionals and services, but also poor quality and low accessibility of health care. The project has developed: • a set of indicators to assess medical desertification, in terms of availability, quality and accessibility of health workers and services; • an analysis of the main causes of the phenomena and possible solutions or mitigation actions, through the literature review; • pilot studies in seven European countries consisting in measuring medical deserts and discussing the antecedents and possible solutions with local stakeholders (consensus building exercise). So far, the project has completed the activities related to the measurement methodology. Currently, pilot studies have been launched, with the aim to: • provide a national overview of medical deserts in the participating countries (Cyprus, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Republic of Moldova and Romania); • assess and characterise the medical desert at national and/or regional level, and the mitigation strategies in place and/or planned; • facilitate consensus on medical deserts mitigation strategies among national/local stakeholders; • provide evidence-based recommendations to mitigate medical deserts in the seven participating countries. The results of the project will provide a proposal for policy actions and solutions against medical desertification for all the EU Member States.