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Health professional mobility in a changing Europe
seems to be deteriorating, not improving, since accession to the EU in 2007.
Other older Member States such as Greece are also facing enormous difficulties
in pulling out of the crisis, while Ireland is still able to attract medical doctors
from non-EU countries. At the same time, some destination countries may
“benefit” from the crisis elsewhere as their large labour markets need qualified
professionals and they are able to offer opportunities to the young and the
brightest health professionals escaping crisis-hit countries. As the gap between
wealthier and poorer EU Member States is widening, a new map of Europe and
of its mobility flows may be emerging based on the relative strength of countries’
economies and their ability to train, attract and retain health professionals. For
the EU as a political entity, built to foster prosperity and reduce asymmetries
between its members, a changing map raises new ethical and policy questions
in terms of the relationship between Member States and whether there is, or
should be, any scope for intra-EU solidarity.
2.2 Chapter findings
The volume is organized into four parts and includes 16 individual chapters.
Part I comprises the introduction (Chapter 1), which presents the rationale
of the book, its policy context, the research questions and methods, and this
chapter.
Part II traces the changing dynamics of health professional mobility. Chapter
3 analyses health professional mobility in the financial and economic crisis.
While there are wide variations in how countries have been affected by and
have responded to the financial crisis, the chapter shows that many of the
pull and push factors of health professional mobility have been profoundly
affected, resulting in changing magnitudes and directions of mobility, although
a reduction of mobility is not observed.
Chapter 4 summarizes the effects of the EU enlargements of 2004 and 2007. The
accession of 12 new Member States with a population of over 100 million citizens
expanded the labour market considerably. The chapter puts the enlargement in
the context of the overall mobility and traces inflows and outflows in sending
and receiving countries. The chapter concludes that mobility has become more
diverse and that overall outflow from the new Member States has remained
moderate, although some countries have lost considerable numbers of health
professionals. Negative impact was observed particularly in remote and already
underserved areas.
Chapter 5 presents an analysis of the reliance on foreign health professionals and
mobility trends. It is a data-critical chapter that explores indicator availabilities,
definitions and registry methodologies. Based on this review, the chapter