Watch back: online intermediate event of the EU Health Workforce Projects Cluster

Countries can address access to health inequalities in the population by improving health worker retention and task-shifting policies. So, what should these policies look like? On March 29th, the five projects of the Health Workforce Projects Cluster on the EU Health Policy Platform – including AHEAD – presented the first results of their research during their second webinar on ‘Fighting access to health inequalities by improving health worker retention and task shifting policies’.

On behalf of AHEAD, Mirela Mustata and Dana Farcasanu from the Center for Health Policies and Services (CHPS) presented the findings of our literature review on a multidimensional definition of medical deserts. This definition will be the basis of AHEAD’s research on identifying medical deserts and the Medical Deserts Diagnostics Tool (currently in development).

‘’What we discovered during the literature review stage was the variability of terms that are used to indicate medical deserts and the complexity behind this apparently simple concept. Yet, it became clear that two aspects are key when one indicates whether an area is a medical desert or not: low density of health services in certain areas as compared to population characteristics and needs and physical distance to the health care services that are available. From this starting point, different avenues of research are open: which levels of health care to consider in each country (primary care, emergency, specialized care, what types of specialized care), how to better define population needs, what is the referral point, how to measure distance, how to test and validate the solution? ‘’

Mirela Mustata, researcher

Did you miss the webinar? You can watch it back HERE

Upcoming participation in European Health Management Association (EHMA) in June

On June 15-17, 2022, the European Health Management Association’s (EHMA) Annual Conference 2022 – with the theme ‘From people to systems: leadership for a sustainable future’ – will take place in Brussels, Belgium. The conference will bring together key healthcare stakeholders providing the latest evidence on ways to transform health systems. The conference provides opportunities for health managers and health professionals to have their voices heard, to connect with decision-makers, and inform policymaking at the European level.

On behalf of AHEAD, Mirela Mustata (CHPS) will present our literature review findings on a multidimensional definition of medical deserts.

Would you like to attend the conference? Please register on EHMA’s website

Save the date: Webinar on fighting access to health inequalities by improving health worker retention and task shifting policies on March 29

On March 29th, 2022 (2:30-4:30 PM Brussels time), the Health Workforce Projects Cluster will organise its second webinar. During the webinar ‘Fighting access to health inequalities by improving health worker retention and task shifting policies’, the five Cluster projects will share their progress so far, focusing on the findings from literature review and applying varying methodologies that the projects are implementing. Mirela Mustata and Dana Farcasanu (Centre for Health Policies and Services, Bucharest) will present findings on behalf of the AHEAD project.

Besides the speakers from each project, the Cluster also invited several external speakers. The webinar will be opened by Miklós Szócska – Director, Semmelweis University, Health Services Management Training Centre and Andrzej Rys – Director Health systems, medical products and innovation, DG SANTE, European Commission. The keynote speakers will be Sarada Das, from Standing Committee of European Doctors, who will present their updated workforce strategy, followed by Heather L. Rogers, (Biocruces Bizkaia Heath Research Institute) with an intervention on the mental health opinion of the Expert Panel on effective ways of investing in health.

We are also excited to hear reflections from Ber Oomen, Executive Director of ESNO (European Specialist Nurses Organisation).

Maya Matthews, Head of Unit Performance of Health Systems, DG SANTE, will conclude and close the webinar, with some reflections from DG SANTE.

The Health Workforce Projects Cluster consists of five EU co-funded projects under the umbrella of the 3rd Health Programme. The projects focus on three key topics – medical deserts, task shifting and retention policies:

• Action for Health and Equity – Addressing Medical Deserts: AHEAD
• MEnTal hEalth: fOcus on Retention of healthcare workers: METEOR
• prOmoting evidence-bASed rEformS: OASES
• Empowering EU health policies on Task SHIfting: TaSHI
• A Roadmap OUT of mEdical deserts into supportive Health WorkForce initiatives and policies: ROUTE-HWF

AHEAD: in full research mode

From autumn 2021 onwards, the AHEAD partners have been busy conducting the in-country research and engaging with their stakeholders in project countries.

This stakeholder engagement is aimed at learning about the lived experiences of affected communities and health workers in medical deserts areas. This will help us validate our working definition of medical deserts that we developed earlier in 2021:

“Medical deserts imply the inability of a given population (and / or a population group) to access health services, or the state of isolation when it comes to receiving health services, based on three categories of quantitative and qualitative barriers (‘dimensions’), which are interrelated and dependent on each other, in varying degrees and modalities.”

These barriers are: (1) physical barriers, (2) social barriers and (3) policy barriers. Read more on our website.

Furthermore, we will be circulating surveys and conducting focus group discussions in spring this year.  If you are working in remote areas or are interested to find out more about AHEAD’s research, please get in touch via the contact us form on the AHEAD website.

OASES Conference, December 10th

On December 10^th, Corinne Hinlopen, global health advocate at Wemos, presented the project Action for Health and Equity Addressing medical Deserts (AHEAD) at an online EU-wide conference, attended by over 60 researchers, health professionals and policy makers, including from the Directorate-General SANTE. The lively engagement with the audience provided additional inspiration for the project partners. The conference was organised to showcase the three European Commission funded projects on medical deserts that have started during 2021.

To read more on this, please visit OASES Conference News!