Consultation process on European Commission Green Paper on the European Workforce for Health
Submissions sought on Health Workforce in Europe
On 10 December 2008, the European Commission launched its Green Paper on the European Workforce for Health. This Green Paper aims:
- to increase the visibility of the issues facing the EU health workforce;
- to generate a clearer picture of the extent to which local and/or national health managers face the same challenges and;
- to provide a better basis for considering what could be done at EU level to address these problems effectively, and in a manner which does not have a negative impact on health systems outside the EU;
- to describe as precisely as possible the challenges faced by the EU health workforce which are common to all Member States:
- the demography issue;
- the weak attractiveness of the wide variety of healthcare and public health related jobs to new generations;
- the migration of health professionals in and out of the EU;
- the unequal mobility within the EU and, in particular, the movement of some health professionals from poorer to richer countries within the EU;
- the health brain drain from developing countries to the EU; and
- to help identify where the Commission believes that further action can be undertaken and to launch a debate on it.
Further information on the Green Paper is available on the European Commission website at: http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_systems/workforce_en.htm
The European Commission calls on all interested organisations to submit responses the issues raised in the Green paper, no later than 31 March 2009, preferably to the following e-mail box SANCO-health-workforce@ec.europa.eu or to the following address: European Commission, B-1049, Brussels, Belgium.
In addition, the Department of Health and Children is inviting the views and input of interested parties in order to develop the Department’s own response to the Green Paper. Further information is available by telephoning (01) 635 3096.
All documentation received will be subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1997, as amended.
Submissions should include full contact details for individual/organisations concerned and be sent to the address below to be received by:
5pm on Friday, 20th March 2009.
Workforce for Health Consultation
Room 424A
National HR & Workforce Planning
Department of Health and Children
Hawkins House
Dublin 2
or by email to: healthworkforce@health.gov.ie
