On 7 April, the international the human resources crisis in health systems across the world.

“To have strong health systems we need to invest in doctors, nurses, pharmacists, midwives and other health sector professionals – in their education, training and working environment,” says Dr Marc Danzon, WHO Regional Director for Europe. “Without a strong and young health workforce, advances in health cannot reach the people who need them, nor can an effective response be provided to problems such as pandemic influenza, HIV/AIDS, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and obesity.”

Health workforce shortages and imbalances have been identified as one of the major bottlenecks to achieving the Millennium Development Goals and priority disease objectives. In general, there are too few health workers and many patients do not receive appropriate health assistance because of shortages in healthcare staff, or because health workers receive insufficient support to keep their competences updated in terms of new technological developments. It is estimated that the UK will experience a shortage of 35 000 nurses by the year 2008. In Finland, the national health system will be short of 112 000 nurses by 2010.

Many in the Eastern part of the Region are leaving their countries in search of higher pay. A survey of physicians in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania and Poland conducted in 2002, showed that between one-quarter and one-half of the respondents were planning migrating west while between 4% and 10% were definitely going to move.

The average age of those at work is getting older. A major concern is the failure of the health systems to attract and keep younger nurses. In Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and France, the average age of nurses is 41–45 years. In the United Kingdom, nearly half are over 40 and one in five nurses is aged 50 or older. In Latvia, over 30% of nurses have attained the pre-retirement age, while only 6% are under 29-year-old. Similar trends have been reported among doctors. While in 1985, 55% of French doctors were aged under 40 – by 2000 this had fallen to 23%. A United Kingdom survey indicated that, in 2001, only 19% of the health workers was under the age of 40 and about 40% of those over 50 are likely to retire during the next 10–15 years.

Dr Nata Menabde, Deputy Regional Director of the WHO European Region, noted, “This is all happening at a time when countries are facing new health problems linked to demographic changes, changing pattern of diseases, emerging technologies and changing expectations of consumers, in a context characterised by changes in the political and economic environment, ranging from European integration and enlargement to globalisation and economic constraints. After years in which the many issues connected with human resources for health have been rather neglected, an agenda for addressing them is beginning to emerge. At the request of our Member States, we will organize a European Ministerial Conference on Health Systems in 2008. Human resources in the health sector will be included in its agenda.”

Information sources: global and regional World health Day events

WHO and its Regional Offices celebrated the World Health Day by organizing a range of promotional activities. The main site for the World Health Day celebrations on 7 April was in Lusaka, Zambia. In the WHO European Region, celebration took place in London. A new Alliance for Human Resources was launched to support health workforce related country initiatives. In parallel, advocacy efforts are under way in many countries of the European Region.

To better inform you on actions we plan and to share with you available evidence on this subject, we have put together a set of information materials. The WHO/EURO publication entitled Human Resources for Health in the European Region is available on www.euro.who.int/whd together with a number of our additional publications on health workforce. On this website you will also be regularly updated on activities in the WHO European Region.

We also invite you to visit the World Health Day global website where you can access the World Health Day toolkit and obtain the World Health Report 2006 and further information on the campaign www.who.int/world-health-day/2006.

For the launch the World Health Report in London journalists are invited to contact:Ms Darlene Taylor, Event coordinator, email: taylorda@who.int ; tel: +41 22 791 2153 or mobile +001 917 207 5220

For more information contact:

TECHNICAL INFORMATION:

Dr Galina Perfilieva
Regional Adviser, Human Resources for Health
WHO Regional Office for Europe
Scherfigsvej 8, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
Tel.: +45 39 17 15 44. Fax: +45 39 17 18 18
E-mail: GPE@euro.who.int

PRESS INFORMATION:

Ms Liuba Negru
Press and Media Relations Officer
WHO Regional Office for Europe
Scherfigsvej 8, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
Tel.: +45 39 17 13 44. Fax: +45 39 17 18 80
E-mail: LNE@euro.who.int