9.N. Workshop: How to solve shortages and uneven distribution of health workers in Europe?

BACKGROUND: Europe's health workforce is under extreme pressure. The increasing challenge of an uneven distribution of health workers within countries is amplified by a structural problem of shortages, inappropriate skill mix, inadequate working conditions and ageing of health workers. In this workshop the results from five research projects, ROUTE-HWF, OASES, AHEAD, TASHI and METEOR (joined in the EU Health Workforce project cluster) will be presented. The ROUTE-HWF, OASES and AHEAD projects focus on the uneven distribution of health workers resulting in ‘medical deserts’, while the TASHI project focusses on task shifting and METEOR on the retention of health workers. In this workshop it will become clear which lessons can be learned from the five projects and how they complement each other. How should retention and task shifting policies be implemented locally, and can they mitigate the uneven distributions of health workers? And vice versa, how should retention and task shifting policies by customized in different types of medical deserts? By combining the five projects into one workshop their links and added values will be made clear. While all projects are based on cross-national comparisons and aim to improve health workforce policy by in-depth research, they also differ and complement approaches to overcome the pressing struggles of the current health workforce. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this workshop is to present the key findings of the different projects, focusing on the need for different solutions for countries to mitigate structural problems of health workers. WORKSHOP FORMAT: This will be a regular workshop. During the workshop, all five projects will shortly present their key results and after each there will be room for discussion. At the end of the workshop there will be room to discuss the complementarity of the five projects, and how they jointly provide an overview of policy options to mitigate structural problems related to medical deserts, task shifting and retention of health workers. KEY MESSAGES: • The workshop will give insight into the specific problems of medical deserts and the possible approaches with regard to retention and task shifting policies. • The workshop will give insight into the need for customizing policy solutions to attach the complex problem of health care worker shortages and regional disparities.