Imbalances of health workforce across the EU27 - Migration of doctors
In many EU-countries, foreign-trained doctors contribute significantly to the provision of health services. Member States such as Luxembourg and Cypros which do not have the capacities for own medical education rely completey on the inflow of doctors trained abroad. In a common European health care market medical education abroad is a natural right of the free movement of citizens. However, the international migration of health care professionals has been recognized as a public health concern. In this context a series of 'push' and 'pull' factors have been identified as driving forces for migration of doctors. In most EU MS, the share of foreign-trained doctors has increased rapidly over the past decade.
Figure: Source and destination of migration of medical doctors, 2013-2020
An idea about the cross-country patient flows provides the Regulated Professions Database (RPD) which registers inflows and outflows of medical doctors in European countries as shown in the Figure above [1]. For example, the major outflows of medical doctors from Germany (country of qualification) are towards the receiving countries Switzerland, Austria, and United Kingdom (host country) with a share of 70.7 percent. In the opposite direction 6081 doctors migrated to Germany from 2013 to 2020. 42.4 percent of the immigrating doctors obtained their professional qualifications in Romania, Austria, and Hungary. The highest numbers of inflows of doctors were registered in countries outside the EU27 such as United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Norway. Among the EU27 countries Sweden, Germany, Belgium, and Austria observed the highest inflows.
The interpretation of the absolute numbers of RPD flows of doctors should, however, take other data into consideration because of incomplete data sets sent by countries, or registered.
Referenzen
[1] European Commission, Regulated professions database, Professionals moving abroad, https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/regprof/index.cfm.
The summary report can be downloaded here: BASYS 2022 - HWF Summary Report.pdf