As European healthcare workers have launched a wave of strikes in recent months, Green lawmakers in the European Parliament have warned about the shortage of healthcare professionals across Europe in a letter to EU leaders.

Healthcare workers in several European countries are currently on strike to protest their working conditions.

The most evident case is actually happening outside the EU, in the UK, where healthcare workers have been on strike since last December, demanding a 19% pay rise in the face of 11% inflation.

According to the British unions, never before have National Health Service (NHS) workers been so mobilised.

In Madrid, more than one million people marched through the streets in February to defend the region’s public health system, which is suffering from a lack of financial and human resources.

The demonstration followed a strike healthcare workers launched in November in the Spanish capital’s hospitals to fight for better working conditions and salary increases.

Belgium, Greece, and Luxembourg are also facing difficulties in recruiting healthcare professionals, who are fleeing to more attractive countries or professions.

At the end of January, more than 18,000 doctors, caregivers, and nurses demonstrated in the streets of Brussels, as reported by the Belgian broadcaster RTBF.

This situation has not gone unnoticed by European lawmakers.

“Access to health care is no longer a given in Europe and the lack of political will to respond quickly to this situation is putting citizens’ health at risk,” said a letter addressed to the European Council by Green MEPs.

According to the signatories, several elements can explain the shortage of personnel, including under-investment in public health care, austerity measures, and privatisation of health systems.

These elements have “considerably deteriorated the working conditions of health and care staff over the years and have made medicine and care no longer attractive career choices in Europe”.

MEPs called on the European Council, which brings together the heads of state and governments of the 27 EU countries, to address the problem of shortages of care workers.

Last December, EU health ministers discussed the matter in Brussels in an attempt to find solutions.

But “four months later, we are concerned about the lack of progress in supporting health and care workers on the ground,” the letter said, highlighting consequences such as “unbearable workload” and “unacceptable work-life balance of healthcare workers”.

The shortage of healthcare workers in Europe is also not something entirely new.

Last September, the World Health Organisation (WHO) conducted a survey in European and Central Asian countries, which showed that all the countries surveyed were “facing serious problems regarding health and care workers”.

The WHO report also focused on the mental health of caregivers, which has deteriorated significantly. The causes include overtime, night work, lack of staff, and little psychological support, but especially the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In some countries, more than 80% of nurses reported some form of psychological distress caused by the pandemic,” the report stated.

Psychological distress is not without consequences since, according to the WHO, nine out of 10 nurses declare their intention to leave their job.

In the letter to the European Council, MEPs asked member states to support the European Commission’s proposal for a directive on psychosocial risks at work.

The aim is “to better integrate the impacts of work on the health of health and care workers and to improve prevention throughout Europe”.

Finally, MEPs called on the EU to use the funds allocated to programmes such as EU4Health, Digital Europe Programme, or Horizon Europe to fill the investment gap in public health systems.

The EU4Health program, with a budget of €5.3 billion for the 2021-2027 period, was adopted in response to the pandemic to strengthen crisis preparedness in the EU.

The programme should be “establishing a pool of medical, nursing and auxiliary staff”, according to the European Commission.

Multi-stakeholder access to the SoHO coordination body. EU lawmakers in the European Parliament are considering opening the doors of a coordination body tasked with implementing the new EU rules on human-origin substances to private companies and civil society, according to a preparatory document obtained by EURACTIV.

Botox for weight loss causing botulism outbreak. The EU’s infectious disease health agency has linked an outbreak of botulism across Europe to a controversial procedure for losing weight practised in Turkey, strongly advised against by medical experts and EU authorities.

EU impotent amid global infertility challenges. Infertility is a major health challenge globally, with one in six people worldwide experiencing it at some point throughout their lifetime, but EU action to address the issue remains limited.

Probiotics term saga. The current regulatory brain-teaser on the use of the ‘probiotics’ term in the EU can only be solved at the political level with an initiative by the European Commission pushed by lawmakers, according to an Italian professor.

Ombudsman on tobacco lobbying to the EU. On Wednesday (19 April), the EU’s Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly asked the Commission to respond to preliminary inquiry findings about a lack of transparency in its interactions with tobacco lobbyists. Her preliminary view is that this constitutes maladministration since several Commission departments had meetings with tobacco representatives in this period in 2020 and 2021, raising transparency concerns.

Vaccine for cancer? An experimental mRNA cancer vaccine developed by Moderna and Merck cut the risk of death or recurrence of the most deadly skin cancer by 44% compared with the previous immunotherapy treatment alone, US researchers reported at a medical meeting on Sunday (16 April).

No excess mortality in the EU since February 2020. For the first time since the pre-pandemic period, there was no excess mortality in the European Union as a whole, the EU’s statistical bureau EUROSTAT said on Tuesday (18 April). The death rate reached an all-time high in November 2020, with excess mortality at 40% above the baseline average.

New EU4Health project on cancer screening. A new health project to facilitate the implementation of lung cancer screening programmes across Europe was launched on 18 April under Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and funded by the EU4Health programme. The Strengthening the Screening of Lung Cancer in Europe (SOLACE) project aims at breaking down the barriers to screening to ensure people across all social and economic groups can access it.

A call for recognising World Parkinson’s Day. On World Parkinson’s Day (11 April), the patient association Parkinson’s Europe called for the event, which has been commemorated for over 30 years, to be added to the list of officially recognised and observed global health days – to improve the impact of its message.

New research collaboration. The EIT Health and the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to formalise their collaboration. The collaboration aims “to create a robust ecosystem, benefiting patients and society by supporting entrepreneurs, researchers, and healthcare professionals”, according to a press release. Both organisations receive EU funding under the Horizon Europe research programme.

PARIS

France to import abortion pills from Italy. France will import pills from Italy as, for several weeks now, the country has been dealing with a lack of misoprostol Health Minister François Braun announced on Wednesday. By Clara Bauer-Babef | EURACTIV.fr

ZAGREB

Croatia presents ambitious cancer strategy amid high death rates. Croatia plans to spend €8.5 billion on its national cancer strategy until 2025 to reduce a cancer-related death rate public health officials claim is “among the highest in Europe”. By David Spaic-Kovacic | EURACTIV.hr

BRUSSELS

Belgian lobbyist sues von der Leyen over Pfizer contracts. A Belgian lobbyist filed a complaint directly against European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen before a Belgian court in a case that could have her immunity lifted and text messages exchanged with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla examined. By Anne-Sophie Gayet | EURACTIV.com

THE HAGUE

Ukrainian refugees protest living conditions in Dutch village. Ukrainians living in a refugee camp in the Dutch village of Harskamp, in the Gelderland province protested their living conditions in the camp on Saturday, bemoaning the poor education, lack of medical care and the sound of gunshots from the military training in the area. By Benedikt Stöckl | EURACTIV.com

BERLIN

Germany wants EU cannabis law changes, waters down own legalisation plans. The German government has decided to lobby Brussels to change EU laws on cannabis and will rework its plans to legalise the drug after the European Commission rejected an initial legislative draft. By Julia Dahm | EURACTIV.de

PRAGUE

Re-using health data for secondary use Some EU countries such as Czechia are already making ‘secondary use’ of health data, ahead of the set-up of the new EU-wide framework to boost the digitalisation of the sector. However, such re-use of health data still needs fine-tuning. Ondřej Plevák | EURACTIV.cz

20 April | European Parliament’s subcommittee on public health (SANT) – exchange of views with EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides

20 April | EU Council’s working party on public health

24 April | Strengthening European Health Systems, FTLive event in partnership with EFPA

24-30 April | WHO World Immunisation Week

24 April | European Parliament’s subcommittee on public health (SANT) – exchange of views with EMA director Emer Cooke and Hera director general Pierre Delsaux

25 April | World Malaria Day

26 April | European Health Data Space event hosted by the MEP Heart Group

26 April | Bridiging the gaps – A pan-European study on digestive diseases across Europe, event hosted by United European Gastroenterology (UEG)

26 April | (Hopefully) Commission presents its new pharmaceutical package