Mariano Votta, Director of Active Citizenship Network, is calling on new EU Institutions to tackle the health workforce crisis.
Civil organisations, patients’ advocacy groups (PAGs), and healthcare professional associations are urging European policymakers to address the health workforce crisis by implementing solutions that prioritise the well-being of health workers, the main precondition for better protection of patients’ rights across Europe.
This message, also framed in a pre-electoral context, emerged during the celebration of the XVIII European Patients’ Rights Day, which was, as always, organised at the EU Parliament in Brussels by Active Citizenship Network, the EU branch of the Italian NGO Cittadinanzattiva.
Civic survey findings
The pandemic has exacerbated issues such as workforce and skills shortages, medical desertification, and job strain, as highlighted by the first civic survey on health personnel presented on this occasion.
This survey was conducted in Italy by Cittadinanzattiva in collaboration with the FNOPI, FNO TSRM, and PSTRP Federations. The study offers insights into the professional conditions of 10,000 workers representing 20 different health professions.
Starting from the main institutional data, a civic reading of the phenomena and criticalities concerning the health workforce in Italy was produced, probing the reasons why health professionals stay or flee from the National Health Service in Italy, but also representing the attention to the issue in a dimension that is not only national but also European, since the phenomenon does not only concern Italy.
Addressing the needs of the health workforce
The outgoing European Parliament was the one that cared most about the health of European citizens. It did so out of necessity because of the pandemic; we wish the next European Parliament would do the same not out of necessity but out of choice.
The upcoming European elections offer the opportunity to ask the candidates, if elected, for a series of commitments on these issues, but it also forces us to point out that the health of European citizens is, so far, completely out of the pre-election debate.
We firmly believe that the health conditions of European citizens and the working conditions of the healthcare professionals – yesterday’s heroes, today totally forgotten – deserve proper attention from those who will be called upon to make decisions representing European citizens.
Neglecting the health workforce crisis jeopardises current and future preventive and care options for citizens. Doctors, nurses, and the entire health workforce are essential to healthcare systems, ensuring the well-being of citizens and fostering trust in the system.
Their support is paramount. For this reason, Active Citizenship advanced the proposal to establish a Public Health Committee within the new European Parliament and announced its commitment to re-establishing the MEPs Interest Group “European Patients’ Rights & Cross-border Healthcare”, for what would be its third mandate, a unicum of its kind.
Reflecting on European Patients’ Rights Day
The annual celebration of the European Patients’ Rights Day at the EU Parliament brought together European Institutions, health workers’ representatives, leaders of civil society and PAGs, a consortium of EU-funded projects addressing the health workforce crisis, journalists, representatives of the Academies of Medicine and the private sector, and independent expert Vytenis Andriukaitis, former European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.
The event was kindly hosted by the Italian MEP Brando Benifei (S&D) and organised with the MEPs Interest Group “European Patients’ Rights & Cross-Border Healthcare”. The XVIII European Patients’ Rights Day was made possible by the unconditional support of Johnson & Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim, Viatris, and received the attention of three media partners: Health Europa, TrendSanità-Policy and Procurement in HealthCare, and the peer-reviewed journal “Archives of Medical Research and Health Sciences”.
