Brussels, 07/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - European health ministers, meeting in informal session in Gödöllõ on 4-5 April discussed the need for greater cooperation in the health sector across Europe. Hungarian National Resources Minister Miklós Réthelyi said that member states had to face challenges that “call for the extension and improvement of our cooperation”. Health Minister Miklós Szócska said that health worker migration was a real problem for the quality of health care and that only improved European cooperation could put the brake on this migration. The central problem is the differences in wages, up to six times as high in the West as in the East of the EU. In some member states, this results in an exodus of health professionals, when overall there is a glaring shortage of around one million healthcare workers, Szócska said. As a consequence, the quality of health care in the countries which doctors are leaving is declining. Szócska said that member states had to find a common solution and, following on from the European Commission Green Paper published in 2008, “agree on the ethical exchange programmes”.
Member states confirmed the importance of the continuation of data exchange, which could help track professional migration in every country and several suggestions were made for developing a unified data collection system. Several member states said there had to be consultation on the training of health workers, so as to ensure the availability of the appropriate number of professionals. The sustainability of healthcare provision was also at the heart of discussions, the task being to give a strategic outline. With societies ageing, some member states suggested the need for radical changes to the healthcare systems. Health Commissioner John Dalli said: “There is more and more demand for health services, but workers are becoming fewer”. European directives were needed to draft solutions, he argued. The commissioner highlighted the importance of exchanging information and stressed the role of research programmes, such as the Health PROMeTHEUS (Health Professionals Mobility in the European Union Study), which aims to map the migration of healthcare professionals within the EU. He spoke, too, about health worker training, and stressed that funds for new challenges are scarce, which makes it even more important to increase efficiency in healthcare. (I.L./transl.rt)