Health Professional Mobility In A Changing Europe

Sequal volume to Health professional mobility and health systems: evidence from 17 European countries / edited by Matthias Wismar ... [et al.]. c2011.

This publication is a shortened version of the summary report “Mobility of Health Professionals: Health systems, work conditions, patterns of health workers’ mobility and implication for policy makers”, which was published in March 2012, in Bonn, Germany, by a consortium led by Dr. Caren Weilandt at the Wissenschaftliches Institut der Ärzte Deutschlands (WIAD, Scientific Institute of the Medical Association of German Doctors). It provides an overview of the outcomes of the MoHProf project that aimed to gather more insights into the processes and effects of mobility of health professionals to, from and within the European Union (EU) and which was carried out under the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development of the EU.

The mobility of health professionals affects the performance of health systems, and increasingly so since the European Union (EU) enlargements in 2004 and 2007. This publication presents research on the gaps in knowledge about the numbers, trends, impacts and policy responses to this dynamic situation, in particular in Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Conducted within the framework of the European Commission s Health PROMeTHEUS project, the research posed a set of questions of key interest to policy-makers: * What are the scale and characteristics of health professional mobility in the EU? * What have been the effects of EU enlargement? * What are the motivations of the mobile workforce? * What are the resulting impacts on health system performance? * What is the policy relevance of those impacts? * What are the policy options to address health professional mobility issues? In answering these questions, this publication offers policymakers evidence of the nature and extent of health professional mobility in the EU, analyzes its impact on country health systems and outlines some major policy strategies to address mobility.

This book on mobility of health professionals reviews, analyses and summarises published information and data as well as collected interview data from stake holders, including politicians, policy makers, health service managers and migrant health workers. It is based on the research carried out under the umbrella of the EU-funded project “Mobility of Health Professionals (MoHProf). The partners involved in the MoHProf project gathered evidence from 25 countries around basic questions and knowledge gaps relating to the international migration of health professionals, which involved an analysis of migration flows and evaluation of policies addressing migration. This book provides a comprehensive description and analysis of the mobility streams, the motives and driving forces behind them and the impact on and challenges for health systems and draws conclusions and provides recommendations for future strategic planning, monitoring and the management of mobility of health professionals as well as further research and policy development needs.

Patient mobility across Europe is markedly increasing and new generations will actively ask to be treated by the health-care system that best meets their needs. At a political level, the EU issued the EU Directive no. 24/2011/CE of 9th March 2011 concerning the application of patients’ rights in cross-border health care and has contributed to improving the level of freedom of choice for the European citizen, but it does not seem to have increased actual patient mobility across Europe. Freedom to choose is necessary to grant the people of Europe the same access to public-sector health-care services. The latter is a key instrument for an efficiently functioning “single market” ensuring real mobility within the EU. The aim of this book is to study the current European health care market and discuss the hypothesis of a European right of citizenship with reference to health-care services. It examines patients' mobility from several perspectives: determinants of patient mobility, governance of cross-border mobility at EU level as concerns patients and health-care professionals, policy implications, and case studies. It is intended for health researchers, decision-makers and professionals concerned with health-care provision and patient mobility. The goal is to provide, through scientific and methodological rigor, new informative tools useful for the implementation of new policies in the health-care sector in order to implement effective health-care integration in the European Union.

V šestih prispevkih monografije so analizirani obstoječi in porajajoči se izzivi na področju delovne mobilnosti v Evropski uniji, pri čemer jih avtorji obravnavajo skozi prizmo mobilnih delavcev v različnih poklicih. Z večdisciplinarnim pristopom in uporabo različnih metodoloških prijemov so avtorji ustvarili ogrodje za analitične diskusije o učinkih mobilnosti v EU, učinkovitosti in pravičnosti prostega pretoka oseb znotraj EU ter večplastnosti posledic za posameznike, države članice in nacionalne politike. Prvi prispevek je teoretski uvod v tematiko, ki mobilnost izčrpno predstavi kot teoretski koncept, politično agendo in temeljno evropsko vrednoto. Kompleksni preplet mnogoterih učinkov delovne mobilnosti, ki se pojavljajo na več ravneh, je v nadaljevanju obravnavan v petih študijah primera. Le-te osvetljujejo dileme, paradokse, učinke in posledice notranje mobilnosti v EU na primerih mobilnih zdravstvenih delavcev, umetnikov in kulturnih delavcev, napotenih delavcev, skrbstvenih delavk in visoko izobraženih delavcev. Vsi predstavljeni primeri so rezultat večletnih znanstvenoraziskovalnih prizadevanj in aktivnega delovanja avtorjev v različnih projektih s področja mobilnosti.

While there may be consensus on the broader issues of the core objectives of the health care system, expectations differ between EU countries, and European national policy-makers. This book seeks firstly to assess the impact of the enlargement process and then to analyse the challenges that lie ahead in the field of health and health policy.

The first holistic and thematic study of EU health law, and its implications, through its own internal logics.