Forthcoming event Webinar Trends of Health Workforce Migration in the European Union.
02 February 2021, 15.00-16.30 CET, MS Teams environment
You may find Webinar recording on YouTube here
Scope and purpose
Background
In all European Nations life and health is one of the most important pillars of wellbeing. Value of health is the cultural backbone of our civilization.
EU citizens, even being cautious about high tax burden, are asking for more health services of higher quality and agree to finance higher health bills by general taxes or health insurance contributions. For decades’ demand for health services grew faster than the total economy, pushing up the share of health care expenditure in GDP. Relative role of the health sector was growing in the 20th century and continues to grow in the 21st century. The latest available Eurostat figures on Eurozone (2017) show that employment in health exceeded 9720 thousand and is almost twice bigger than in economic sectors of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, mining, and manufacturing of basic metals that dominated European policy at the start of European integration combined that is 5850 thousand (see a chart).
Source: Eurostat
The impressive dynamics of health sector most likely will continue at least until 2030 in most of OECD countries according to majority of recent forecasts. The dynamics creates opportunities but at the same time is related to risks. For example, the free movement of people is a cornerstone of an open and integrated Europe. Yet the mass migration of Europeans, particularly from East to West, creates a source of anxiety for both sending and receiving Member States. Europe leads the World according to main characteristic of public health, yet COVID-19 clearly indicated limited resilience of all European health systems.
The webinar has a purpose to reflect on healthcare labour market development in Europe with the emphasis on labour migration, to look at evidence on push and pull factors leading to migration of labour force in healthcare sector.
The webinar is an integral part of a 3-year project Working Together to Address Health Workforce Mobility in Europe. The start of the project was publicly announced on European Health Forum Gastein 2020. Up to 12 webinars to address the unequal distribution of the health workforce in Europe, to participate in designing of policies to support regions that have difficulties in attracting health workers as well as promoting training and education of health professionals to common standards, coupled with measures to safeguard the rights of health workers from the rest of the world. are foreseen by the project.
A background paper for the webinar is developed and displayed on a website of European Institute of Health and Sustainable Development (www.eihsd.eu).
Conclusions of the webinar are going to be developed and disseminated in 2 weeks after the webinar.
Format
Moderated by a professional moderator Joe Lynam from BBC and chaired by Dr Vytenis Andriukaitis.
Panel of 4 speakers representing the following perspectives:
- Jean-Christophe Dumont, Head of the International Migration Division. “Recent trends in international mobility of health workers across Europe and the OECD”.
- Markus Schneider, BASYS, Germany. “System of health accounts as a tool for healthcare labour force management”.
- Corinne Hinlopen, Wemos, The Netherlands. “Suboptimal allocation of healthcare work force in Member states: Medical deserts in Europe”.
- Gediminas Cerniauskas, European Institute for Health and Sustainable Development, Lithuania. “Trends that may change international migration patterns in European Union: case study on Lithuania”.
Speakers and Moderator
Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis served as European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety in 2014-2019. Vytenis Andriukaitis has been practicing surgeon for more than 20 years. In 1990 he was one of the co-authors of Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania adopted in 1992. A Member of Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania for six mandates. He led the Lithuanian delegation to the Convention on the Future of Europe. Minister for Health of Republic of Lithuania (2012-2014).
Jean-Christophe Dumont, PhD, Head of the International Migration Division in the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD since 2011. He joined the OECD Secretariat in 2000 to work on international migration issues. He oversees the OECD annual flagship publication on migration, the International Migration Outlook, and numerous publications on the economic impact of international migration, as well as on migration management and the labour market integration of immigrants and their children in OECD countries. He has also worked on migration and development issues and on the international mobility of health workers. He holds a PhD in development economics from the University Paris IX-Dauphine and was a research fellow at Laval University, Quebec, Canada.
Markus Schneider, Ph.D., Director of German Consulting Company BASYS, with proven record on research and modelling healthcare systems of Western Europe and consultancy in most countries of Central and Eastern Europe – 35-years’ experience in the fields of health, social and economic systems on a national and international level. Through BASYS he provides knowledge to the Commission of the European Union, The World Bank, OECD, WHO, Ministries and other organisations. BASYS is committed to quality, competence, and entrepreneurship of consultancy.
Corinne Hinlopen, Wemos, studied Sociology and Development Studies at Wageningen University (The Netherlands) with specialisations in health education and public health. In 2001, she earned her Master’s in Public Health at the Netherlands School of Public Health, after which she worked with various public health organizations in the Netherlands, in the fields of infectious diseases, food and nutrition, non-communicable diseases, health promotion and disease prevention. Realizing once again that lasting improvements in (public) “Health for all” require intersectoral, systemic changes as well as international collaboration, Corinne set her mind to working in international advocacy and joined Wemos in 2014. As the Policy Researcher for Global Health, she focuses on human resources for health, health systems, the Sustainable Development Goals and on ‘leaving no one behind’ and likes to challenge institutions on their contributions to global public goods for health.
Gediminas Cerniauskas, PhD in health economics, has more than 20 years record of working in Lithuanian Government (Deputy Minister of Health, Minister of Health, advisor to Prime-Minister), Academy (Professor of health economics in Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius) and consultancy (projects in East Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia). Graduated from Vilnius University, studied in London School of Economics.
Moderator, Joe Lynam: is a respected broadcaster and moderator who was the BBC’s senior Business Correspondent for a decade. He now presents the current affairs show ‘The Newsroom’ on BBC Radio 4 and the World Service. Joe has won many awards for his original journalism. He has presented and been a senior correspondent on the Today programme, Newsnight, BBC One Breakfast as well as Five Live and the BBC News Channel.
Webinar Outline
time in total: 90 min.
| Time | Activity | Who is leading and/or speaking? | What’s on screen for event participants? |
| 2 min | Introduction and opening
Presenting speakers |
Moderator | Moderator |
| 3 min | Short video on UHC | ||
| 10 min | European values and mobility of healthcare work force: how to strike a balance between free movement of labour, universal health coverage, equal accessibility to health services to all residents of the EU? Vytenis Andriukaitis | Chair | Moderator and chair
|
| Q1: 1st Intervention of panellists 25 min
|
Moderator and panel | ||
| 15 min | Recent trends in international mobility of health workers across Europe and the OECD, Jean-Christophe Dumont | Moderator and speaker | |
| 10 min | System of health accounts as a tool for healthcare labour force management, Markus Schneider | Moderator and speaker | |
| 5 min | Q&A | Moderator and speakers | |
| Q2 – The 2nd intervention of panellists 20 min |
|
Moderator and panel
|
|
| 10 min | Suboptimal allocation of healthcare work force in Member states: Medical deserts in Europe, Corinne Hinlopen | Moderator and speaker | |
| 10 min | Trends that may change international migration patterns in European Union: case study on Lithuania, Gediminas Cerniauskas | Moderator and speaker | |
| 20 min | Q3 – Questions from the audience and panel responses | Chair, moderator, panel,
|
Chair, Moderator, panel |
| 5 min | Wrap up | Chair, moderator | Chair, moderator |
For additional information or questions on the content, logistics or technical issues pls. address to EIHSD staff: accordingly: Gediminas Cerniauskas (gcerniauskas57@gmail.com); Romas Buivydas (rbuyvidas@sec.lt) Tamar Gabrielashvili-Cerniauskiene (tngabriel@eihsd.eu)
