Newsletter, March 2023

WHO Executive Board Meeting identifies the healthcare workforce as 5-year priority, March 2023; https://www.who.int/teams/health-workforce#

 EPH Conference 8-11 November 2023 in Dublin. Join us in Dublin for the EPH Conference ‘Our food, our health, our earth: a sustainable future for humanity’; https://ephconference.eu/Dublin-2023-333. Don’t miss this opportunity, abstract submission is open until 1 May 2023; https://ephconference.eu/meet-the-chair-of-dublin-2023-364

Special Health Workforce satellite event at EPH, Wednesday, 8. November, 18.00-20.00, Safe the date! EUPHA-HWR colleague Niamh Humphries is organising a satellite event hosted by the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI; https://www.rcsi.com/dublin/) and EUPHA-HWR section. It will involve presentations and an opportunity to network and collaborate. Everybody welcome, free entrance, join us at Dublin city centre, RCSI campus, St Stephens Green. More information will follow soon!

Midterm webinars/conference panels, co-organised by EUPHA-HWR.

WHO 5^th Global Forum Human Resources for Health, Geneva/virtual, 3-5 April 2023, parallel session on Advancing the understanding of circular migration as an effective and equitable mechanism for health workforce retention and motivation, 4 April, 17.00-18.30 CET, organised and chaired by EUPHA-HWR member Marius Ungureanu, Babes Bolyai University Romania. Speakers include: Tomas Zapata/WHO Europe, Ligia Paina/Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health USA; Gareth Rees/ ESAN University Lima Peru; Ellen Kuhlmann/ EUPHA-HWR and Hannover Medical School Germany; please find the programme at: https://www.who.int/teams/health-workforce/about/5thglobalforum-hrh. Registration is still open; https://healthandcareworkforce.org/168/participation_form, no registration fee.

Past events

Technical session at the high-level WHO Europe Regional Meeting on Health and Care Workforce, Bucharest, 22-23 March 2023. EUPHA-HWR and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (OBS) co-organised a technical session Bridging scientific evidence and policy making: responding to health workforce needs, improving retention. The session was chaired by Michelle Falkenbach/ OBS and included presentations on “Health labour market data and policy: what evidence is there on retention“ (Michelle Falkenbach), “The nursing workforce, exhausted, exploited, harassed: how to improve decent work and mental health“ (Karen Bjøro, International Council of Nurses) and “What evidence is there on the needs of healthcare workers and why it should matter in health workforce policy?” (Ellen Kuhlmann, EUPHA-HWR) and case study presentations “Bringing evidence of healthcare workforce needs into practice, improving retention” from country representatives of Moldova (Victoria Olaru), Ireland (Breda Rafter) and Portugal (Sara Alidina).

Webinar EUPHA International Women’s Day. Health policy and global health crises: why we need feminist intersectional approaches and what to learn from COVID-19, 7 March 2023. This webinar was hosted by EUPHA and organised as a collaborative event of EUPHA sections: Health Workforce Research (HWR) Ellen Kuhlmann; Public Health Policy and Practice (PHPP) Sofia Riberiro; Migrant and Ethnic Minority Health (MIG) Bernadette N. Kumar; Sexual and Gender Minority Health (SGMH) Arjan van der Star; SDG5 Gender Equality Working Group Elena Petelos; EUPHAnxt Monica Brînzac; and international speaker Abi Sriharan, York University, Canada.

Webinar EHMA & EUPHA-HWR Stepping up the prevention of violence against healthcare workers, 13 March 2023, with panellists: George Valiotis/ EHMA, Tomas Zapata/ WHO Regional Office Europe; Ellen Kuhlmann/ EUPHA-HWR, Sarada Das/ CPME–Standing Committee of European Doctors, Michelle Falkenbach/ European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Jose Martin-Moreno/ASPHER & University of Valencia Spain.

Webinar GLOHRA (Global Health Research Alliance Germany) project PROTECT & EUPHA-HWR & Babes-Bolyai University Romania Migrant healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, 14 March 2023hosted at Babes-Bolyai University by Marius Ungureanu and Monica Brînzac/ EUPHAnxt. Speakers included: Ellen Kuhlmann/ Hannover Medical School, Germany & EUPHA-HWR; Giordano Magri/ Getulio Vargas Foundation Sao Paulo, Brazil; Maria Panagioti/ NIHR Greater Manchester, United Kingdom; Sarada Das/ CPME–Standing Committee of European Doctors; George Valiotis/ EHMA; Michelle Falkenbach/ European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.

 Conferences

The EHMA (European Health Management Association) Annual Conference on ‘Health management: sustainable solutions for complex systems’ takes place on 5-7 June 2023 in Rome, Italy, co-hosted by ALTEMS, Catholic University of Sacred Heart. Registration is open at: https://ehmaconference.org/register-for-ehma-2023/ and a programme available at: https://ehmaconference.org/ehma-2023-programme/. Especially Track 3 “Human capital, professionalism and people management“ sets the focus on the healthcare workforce.

Notices

The regular term of the current EUPHA-HWR steering group ends and a new president and steering group will be elected in November 2023, taking office at/after the EPH Conference, as already announced at Join-the Network session at the previous EPH Conference in Berlin. More information on the nomination and election procedures will follow in late summer/autumn.

Publications

European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies has prepared three high-level Policy Briefs for the 5^th Global Forum on Human Resources for Health. They will shortly be available; links to the summary versions are provided below.

WHO & European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. Policy Brief 1: What did the COVID-19 pandemic teach us about future workforce development? Policies and practices to recruit, retain, reskill and support health and care workers, 2023; available at: https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/health-workforce/5gf/5gf-policy/5gf_policybrief1_202301.pdf?sfvrsn=c931d2ec_10

WHO & European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. Policy brief 2: What can intersectoral governance do to strengthen the health and care workforce? Structures and mechanisms to improve the education, employment and retention of health and care workers, 2023; available at: https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/health-workforce/5gf/5gf-policy/5gf_policybrief2_202301.pdf?sfvrsn=60745490_8

WHO & European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. Policy brief 3: What steps can improve and promote investment in the health and care workforce? Enhancing efficiency of spending and rethinking domestic and international financing, 2023; available at: https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/health-workforce/5gf/5gf-policy/5gf_policybrief3_202301.pdf?sfvrsn=2f00df2d_5

WHO-Europe. Regional Report. Health and care workforce in Europe: time to act. Copenhagen: WHO, 2022; https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/362379

WHO. Working for Health. 2022-2030 Action Plan protection and performance. Geneva: WHO, 2023; https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240063402

WHO. WHO health workforce support and safeguards list 2023. Geneva: WHO, 2023; https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240069787

World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting. Why is there a global medical recruitment and retention crisis?, Davos, 9 January 2023; https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/medical-recruitment-crisis-davos23/?utm_source=Alliance+For+Ethical+International+Recruitment+Practices&utm_campaign=a2572614e2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_06_08_02_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_aacf080033-a2572614e2-&mc_cid=a2572614e2&mc_eid=49e1cc046f&mc_cid=fe7861558f&mc_eid=49e1cc046f

WHO Europe. First-of-its-kind WHO/Europe course puts health workforce and leadership at the heart of health system recovery. Copenhagen: WHO, 2023 (1 March); https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/01-03-2023-first-ever-who-europe-course-puts-health-workforce-and-leadership-at-the-heart-of-health-system-recovery

WHO. Dr Tedros identifies health workforce as 5-year priority at WHO 152^nd Executive Board Meeting. Geneva: WHO, 2023 (1 March); https://www.who.int/teams/health-workforce#

WHO. Strengthening the collection, analysis and use of health workforce data and information: a handbook. Geneva: WHO, 2023; https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/365680. The handbook also contains several chapters of EUPHA-HWR members Gilles Dussault, Milena Santric Milicevic, and Marius Ungureanu.

European Policy Centre. Addressing the challenges of the healthcare workforce: Ensuring the future of health in Europe. 2023; https://www.epc.eu/en/Publications/Addressing-the-challenges-of-the-healthcare-workforce-Ensuring-the-fu~4db494

Humphries N. Doctors are leaving Ireland and heading for Australia in droves – here’s why. The Conversation, 24 February 2023; https://theconversation.com/doctors-are-leaving-ireland-and-heading-for-australia-in-droves-heres-why-199998

Kuhlmann E, Brinzac M, Czabanowska K, Falkenbach M, Ungureanu M, Valiotis G, Zapata T, Martin-Moreno J. Violence against healthcare workers is a political problem and a public health issue: a call to action, Eur J Public Health, 2023; 33(1):4–5; doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckac180

Kuhlmann E, Denis J-L, Côté N, Lotta G, Neri S. Comparing health workforce policy during a major global health crisis: a critical conceptual debate and international empirical investigation. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2023, 20:5035; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20065035

Kuhlmann E, Ungureanu M-I, et al. Migrant healthcare workers during COVID-19: bringing an intersectional health system-related approach into pandemic protection. A German case study, medRxiv preprint; https://medrxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.01.28.23285135v1

Peppler L, Schenk L. Integration of migrant healthcare workforce from the perspective of leading hospital staff in Germany. Eur J Public Health, 2022;30(Supplement 5):v764; https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaa166.632

Women in Global Health. The #HealthToo policy report. Her Story: Ending Sexual Violence and Harassment of Women Health Workers. Available at: https://womeningh.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/HealthToo-Policy-Report.pdf, also in Spanish and French.

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The next EUPHA-HWR Newsletter scheduled for 30 June 2023. Please send notices on conferences, etc., and publications related to health workforce issue until 22 June 2023. Please forward this Newsletter to colleagues and friends who are interested in health workforce research; sign up for the EUPHA-HWR section; https://eupha.org/health-workforce-research.

Ellen Kuhlmann, EUPHA-HWR President

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