There is no healthcare without the health workforce and there is no resilient health system without the right health workers, with right skills and motivations, at the right place and time. This section showcases some of the European Observatory's work on this topic.

Human resources are fundamental to any health system. They provide diagnostics, therapy and all sorts of care in numerous settings. Human resources are a key factor in health system expenditure. Human resources for health have great significance for the economy as it forms one of the largest sectors in the labour market. It is extremely important for employment. And it is undergoing fundamental change.

Any discussion of human resources for health should start with the patient at the centre. What are the medical needs with regards to health outcomes? How can the non-medical expectations of patients be accommodated? How can patients be empowered to be co-producers of their health and lead lives as self-determined as desired? 

To accommodate these patient needs, many countries in Europe have decided to strengthen primary care and care integration. These reforms also fundamentally affect the health workforce. It requires a thorough rethink of the distribution of tasks and roles of health professionals over the health system.

And on top of this, there is a lot of additional pressure on human resources for health:

• Demand for health workers is constantly growing in Europe, in many countries however, the domestic pool is shrinking due to demographic changes;
• Recruitment and retention often remain challenging because of limited training capacity and challenging working conditions;
• Maldistribution between urban and rural areas remains a problem causing issues in accessibility;
• The health workforce is ageing and work and workload needs to align with this factor;
• Inside the European Economic Area (including Switzerland) there is a labour market of health professionals but there is neither joint monitoring nor forecasting let alone planning;
• Innovation, including new models of care, new diagnostic and curative technologies and digital health require targeted and effective continuous professional development of health workers. 

The Observatory is aiming to address these challenges from a policy relevant analytical perspective. It has therefore included in its work programme some key topics:

• The health workforce;
• Health professional education and training;
• Skill-mix and task-shifting;
• Mobility and health professionals.