A generation shift

A generation shift

According to the 'Health and Care Workforce in Europe Report: Time to Act', it is essential for European countries to invest more in the health care sector, taking advantage of the students rise in this discipline as well.

BY Víctor Farradellas | 26 April 2024

This data shows other evidence: in a few years’ time the medical profession will face a generational shift, as the jobs of the retiring professionals will have to be covered. However, this does not mean that the new doctors will all be young. In recent years, we have seen a growing trend of mobility of health care professionals between countries.

In 2021, over 4,000 Spanish graduates applied for the certificate to be able to work abroad, at the same time as 4,293 non-EU doctors arrived in Spain. Depending on the evolution of the sector’s funding and the legislation regarding the homologation of qualifications, we could see an increase of professionals from other countries, while Spain’s own talent drain continues to travel to other climes.

 


 

 

Finally, if we look at the rate of registered professionals in relation to the number of inhabitants, we can see that the rate of registered doctors was 5.99 per 1,000 inhabitants and 6.98 nurses per 1,000 inhabitants. The highest rates of registered doctors appeared in Aragon (7.25 per 1,000 inhabitants), the Community of Madrid (7.13) and the Principality of Asturias (7.00); while the highest rates of registered nurses per 1,000 inhabitants were recorded in Navarra (11.15), Cantabria (8.82) and Extremadura (8.13).


Although the ratio of doctors per inhabitant puts Spain in a good position (amongst the top 15 in the world according to the World Bank), this does not mean that these doctors are working in optimum conditions. All the countries in the European Region of the WHO are currently facing serious challenges related to health and care personnel. 

According to the Health and Care Workforce in Europe Report: Time to Act, it is essential for European countries to invest more and better in the health care sector, as the cutbacks in recent years have caused difficulties when attracting and retaining talent, increasing the international mobility of professionals and it has contributed to generating imbalances in the teams and inefficient organisation systems, which are translated into bad planning strategies.

 

In first person: 

Pedro Barrios, Cancer surgeon

 

"The technological, scientific advances, artificial intelligence and digital health are directing us towards a more predictive, preventive, participative and personalised medicine. The medicine of the future will be more precise and safe, but this will probably be at the expense of the profession’s humanistic values".
 

 

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