29-11-2022

Conference about health workforce challenges, free movement of labour and medical deserts

Join this conference on November 30th, organised by Juozas Olekas (Member of EU Parliament), European Institute of Health and Sustainable Development (EIHSD), and the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS).

This will be a hybrid event about balancing the free movement of workers in the EU with health workforce-related challenges, such as accessibility of health services and medical desertification.

Corinne Hinlopen, global health advocate at Wemos and project officer of Pillars of Health, will present a civil society perspective on equitable training, retaining and distribution of health workers.

Closing remarks will be given by Juozas Olekas, as well as Vytenis Andriukaitis, who also participated as a panelist at the launch session of Pillars of Health in May 2022.

11.10.2022.

Panel discussion on health workforce recruitment in Europe and beyond at the World Health Summit 2022

On October 17^th 2022, Pillars of Health, dpgg (German Platform for Global Health), and vdää* (Association of Democratic Physicians) will organise an online panel discussion on health workforce recruitment in Europe and beyond during a side event at the World Health Summit 2022 in Berlin. As project coordinator of Wemos’ human resources for health programmes (including Pillars of Health), Aysel Rahimli will take part as one of the discussion’s panelists. In addition, Karen Spannenkrebs of one of our partner in Pillars of Health – vdää* – will give a welcome and introductory speech, and Remco van de Pas (Centre for Planetary Health Policy) will moderate the session.

The speaker panel will discuss questions on the effects of excessive health workforce recruitment, the adherence of European countries to the WHO Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel and visions and demands for just labour migration governance  and  regulation.

Date: October 17^th, 2022
Time: 12.30 – 14.00 CET (lunch break at the World Health Summit)
Location: Zoom (recording will be available on the websites of Pillars of Health, dpgg, vdää*)
More information and registration: visit the website of the German Platform for Global Health

The flyer can be found here.

UPDATE
The recording of the event is now available. Please enter this password to view the recording: b^+6x.uB

20.05.2022.

Pillars of Health has been launched!

On May 20^th, we successfully launched our new website and coalition during an engaging and dynamic session. Together with panelists, we discussed the maldistribution of health workers in the European Union and neighbouring countries, and how Pillars of Health and its coalition aims to contribute to a solution. You can watch the recording of the event on YouTube (see below).

The *session kicked off with an introductory speech by moderator Corinne Hinlopen (Pillars of Health programme officer), and presentations by Aysel Rahimli (Pillars of Health programme coordinator) about Pillars of Health, our initial research findings on health workforce mobility and migration in Germany, Romania, Serbia and on EU level, and interviews with Romanian health workers who migrated to the Netherlands and/or returned back to Romania.

During the panel discussion, our panelists (see below) engaged in a lively exchange about the needed (policy) changes to mitigate the negative effects of health workforce migration in Europe, to ensure equal access to health workers for everyone in Europe.

*Agenda

14:00 – 14:15
Welcome
Brief introduction on:
The maldistribution of health workers in the European Union
Pillars of Health

14:15 – 14:25
Pillars of Health, a partnership for advocacy
Our research findings so far
The stories of health workers who migrate

14:25 – 14:45
Panel discussion with:

• Dr Vytenis Andriukaitis (Special Envoy of the WHO for Universal Health Coverage for the European region and Member of the Political Advisory Panel of the UHC 2030 Movement (since 2020); former EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety (2014-2019))
• Prof James Buchan (Senior Fellow at the Health Foundation, London)
• Sarada Das (Deputy Secretary General of the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME))
• Dr Milena Santric Milicevic (Prof Social Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia)

14:45 – 14:55
Q&A session

14:55 – 15:05
Pillars of Health coalition: joining forces for health worker balance in Europe

15:05 – 15:15
How to get involved