Assessing future health workforce needs

ABSTRACT

Many countries face difficulties in adequately deploying the health workforce and the mobility of health personnel between countries in Europemakes planning at national level difficult, in part, because migratory flows are poorly documented.The aim of this policy summary is to inform policy- and decision-makers of the state of knowledge about how best to assess and respond to future health workforce needs. It first discusses the nature of the challenge in assessing the future health workforce. It then introduces available tools and strategies; discusses their strengths andweaknesses; presents lessons learned from relevant country experiences, and summarizes the key messages from the review of the state of the art.