​On December 10th, 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.

Corinne presented results from the initial literature review and discussed the complexities in identifying medical deserts in their specific context. She also highlighted the unique features of the AHEAD project. “Our focus on ‘lived realities’, by specifically including the experiences of affected communities in the identification of medical deserts; the multi-stakeholder approach to formulating feasible and acceptable policy measures to mitigate and prevent medical deserts; and the ambition to build a Medical Deserts Diagnostic Tool and a Medical Deserts Network. These all make our project unique in its kind.”

You can watch the recording of the conference

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On December 10, the EU consortium project OASES is organising its first EU-wide conference on medical deserts. Speakers will discuss ways to describe medical deserts, as well as experiences with the phenomenon in Moldova and Romania. Are you interested in tackling medical desertification? Then save the date and register today!

The conference (PDF agenda) will kick-off with speeches from James Buchan (WHO), Katarzyna Ptak-Bufkens (European Commission), Marius Ionut Ungureanu (Bolyai University, Romania), and Sergio Otgon (National Public Health Agency, Moldova). During several co-creation sessions, Corinne Hinlopen (AHEAD project), Véronique Lucas-Gabrielli (Institute for Research and Information in Health Economics) and Ronald Batenburg (ROUTE-HWF project) will dive into indicators used to identify and measure medical deserts.

European countries are facing health workforce challenges that are projected to continue over the upcoming decades. Increasing global and regional demand for health workers due to demographic and economic factors will likely only make the need for strong health systems and robust and sustainable health workforce policy more urgent.

Hosted on the EU Health Policy Platform, the OASES conference will give experts from other EU consortium projects on medical deserts and participants the opportunity to connect and exchange knowledge and ideas. Sound interesting? Participation is possible via registration (see below). We hope to see you on the 10^th!

OASES EU-wide Conference – ‘Making medical deserts bloom’

Date: Friday 10 December 2021
Time: 9.00 – 13.00 CET (Brussels time)
Registration: via this link

Visit the OASES website for more information

Europe is struggling with its health workforce, with challenges such as health worker shortages and an uneven distribution. Coordinated efforts to strengthen the health workforce in Europe are therefore urgently needed. To support EU Member States in strengthening their health workforce, tools, methods and practices are necessary; this should lead to strategic EU health workforce planning and strategic human resources management. These were some of the key messages from the official launch of the EU Health Workforce Projects Cluster on Monday September 20, 2021. The organisations involved in five EU co-funded projects– AHEAD, METEOR, OASES, TaSHI and ROUTE-HWF – also introduced their projects on health worker retention policies, mitigating medical deserts and task shifting.

Opening speakers Dr Andrzej Rys (Director, Health systems, medical products and innovation, DG SANTE, European Commission) and Miklós Szócska (Director, Health Services Management Training Centre, Semmelweis University) highlighted the importance of investing in the health workforce and health systems, particularly in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The EU Health Workforce Projects Cluster provides the perfect opportunity to share knowledge and (learning) experiences. Dr Rys announced that the European Commission is planning a new Joint Action starting in 2022, focusing on adapting allocation needs, reform of allocation system, and continuous professional development, to equip health workers with critical skills.

In addition, the organisations in the EU Health Workforce Projects Cluster presented their projects:

• 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

In case you missed it, you can watch the recording of the event via this link (password: 3Gqd9nv4).

If you are interested in joining the Health Workforce Projects Cluster as an expert or stakeholder, please register on the EU Health Policy Platform, and request to join the Cluster Network.