EFN News

The EFN is an associated partner in the Joint Action on Health Workforce Planning and Forecasting launched in April 2013 and which will run until the end of 2015.

The general objective of this Joint Action, which is being led by Belgium, is to help countries to move forward on the planning process of health workforce and to prepare the future of the health workforce by creating a platform for collaboration and exchange between Member States. This will support Member States and Europe in their capacity to take effective and sustainable measures.

The Joint Action will support and enable Member States insofar as they choose to develop and reinforce health workforce forecasting and planning capacity in Member States, share and benchmark practices, results, knowledge and expertise from Member States at a European level, support evidence-based decision making in Member States and at a European level, meet current and future challenges in health care by taking into account demand and supply and aim at sustainability of health systems.

The Joint Action will work towards better understanding of terminology, better monitoring of the health workforce by access to timely data, updated information on mobility and migration trends in the EU, guidelines on quantitative and qualitative health workforce planning methodology, increased quantitative and qualitative planning capacity, estimation of future skills and competencies needed in the health workforce, a platform of cooperation to find possible solutions on the expected shortage of health workforce, and a higher impact of health workforce planning and forecasts on policy decision making.