Dear Colleagues

Hope you are well and delighted with the summer time that has reached Europe. 

Many thanks for those who have already submitted their confirmations for the participation at the June 13-14 Budapest Workshop. Caroline Hager from DG Sanco, Michel Van Hoegaerden the Programme Manager of our Joint Action, and Gaetan Lafortune, Joint Questionnaire expert of OECD will be also present to support our work.

In this email we send a list of questions for each partner in WP4, either in the Terminology or in the Mobility Activity. Based on these questions we ask you to prepare - with a max. 2 days time investment - a 10 minutes practical overview presentation for a group session of the 13-14 Budapest Workshop as your "homework". (For the ppt., please use the template of your own organisation.) While you focus on one Activity, please make sure that you have an understanding of the other Activity as well. 

Homework for Italy, Portugal, Poland, Finland, Netherlands and Hungary - Activity 1. on Terminology

Note: Other associated partners willing to provide this information are free to do so, by providing the information on paper for distribution purpose.

• Which organization(s) collect stock health workforce data in your country? What data do you receive from these organisations for your work? 

• Do you see any (terminology/definition based) inconsistencies between data coming from different national data sources? 

• Do these data match international ISCO codes as regards to doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, midwives? If not, what is the gap between the data contents? Please pay a special attention to the nurses category. 

• Which organisation(s) are in charge for collecting the data in the "licenced to practice", "practicing" and "professionally active" categories in the five harmonised professions?  

• Are international comparative HWF data is used for health workforce planning activities in your country and if so, are there any terminological issues when comparing international data with national data? 

• Reading the JQ (attached) including the Definitions, do you have any questions regarding the contents of data requested?

These general questions help us to prepare for the Budapest Workshop where we shall elaborate a detailed list of questions on the Joint Questionnaire that all partners in WP4 will fill out for their own countries during autumn this year. 

Homework for UK, Greece, Germany, Slovakia, Belgium, UEMS and Hungary - Activity 2. on Mobility

Note: Other associated partners willing to provide these informations are free to do so, by providing the information on paper for distribution purpose.

• What are the main health professional data sources in your country related to mobility e.g. diploma recognitions, good standing certificates, registrations at chambers? Please add data sources. Does your country have more data sources e.g. labour market data, also related to HWF mobility?

• Which healthcare professions are covered by mobility data (inflow and outflow mobility)?

• What are the main indicators regarding health professional mobility applied in your country? (Do they cover WHO indicators: Country of degree, Country of birth, Country of nationality. See the attached Feasibility Study p.35. Figure 5.)

• Can you evaluate the validity and reliability of this data?

• In case you have a health workforce planning process in your country, are mobility data considered? 

• Do you keep contact with authorities of other nations to map international flow of your HWF?

• How do you interpret the data relating to the health workforce of country in the Regulated Professions Database of DG Markt? 

• What is the added value of considering international mobility data in health workforce planning in your consideration? 

The above homework questions are also sent in a separate attachment. 

Background literature 

In order to get a deeper insight to the health workforce issues in your country, we would suggest you to rely on the following sources: 

• The HiT Profile of your country summarised by the European Observatory. Each HiT has a short overview about the Human resources, Healthcare Personnel. The list of HiT summaries: http://www.euro.who.int/en/who-we-are/partners/observatory/health-systems-in-transition-hit-series/hit-summaries

• Prometheus country case studies on health professional mobility (covering 17 countries). Link to the book: http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/152324/e95812.pdf

• Get in touch with the authors of your country HiT and Prometheus case study, and you can discuss or clarify definitions, data sources etc. with them in your native language that surely would support the JA. 

• Chapter 5.2.2. of the Feasibility study provides a general introduction to Geographical mobility in Europe, while the country summaries in the Appendix of the Feasibility Study are also useful. (Please find it in attachment) 

Countries that have not assigned days to these activities are also asked to take a look into the questions mentioned above, while Collaborating Partners are welcome to offer a contribution that fits their professional interest. 

Varia

• In order to prepare the workshop, the WP4 team would appreciate to receive the input by 6/06/13 on the following mail address: EUHWForceWP4@emk.sote.hu

• In case your organization cannot deliver on time, please mention it!

• Presentation format would preferably be PPT or PPTX, but PDF may suit if you don't use MS-Powerpoint.

• Document format would preferably be DOC ou DOCX, but PDF may suit if you don't use MS-Word.

• On 30 April we have closed the “WP4 - Review of Gantt Chart & Man.days” activity so we consider that the mandays in the “Joint Action WP 4 activities- 22 April 2013” pdf. document sent to you on 223 April are now accepted by every partner in WP4. 

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this e-mail. 

Kind regards

Zoltan

Zoltan Aszalos

MBA, MPhil

WP4 Leader - Joint Action on European Health Work Force Planning and Forecasting

Human Resources Monitoring Chief Advisor

Health Services Management Training Centre, Semmelweis University

1125 Budapest, Kútvölgyi út 2. Hungary

Mobile: +36 20 9 42 42 15 

Fax: +36-1-488-7610

E-mail: zoltan.aszalos@emk.sote.hu

http://www.emk.sote.hu