Health Working Group

Issues in focus

Ensuring the ‘right to stay’ is one of the main priorities of the European Commission, manifested in its Political Guidelines for the European Commission 2024-2029. Doing so, will require all EU regions to become (or remain) attractive places to live and work. To achieve this, reforms and investments to support professional development opportunities, quality of life, and access to essential services are required. This also includes access to high-quality healthcare services and facilities.

The existence of high-quality healthcare services at a regional level can be considered as a major push or pull factor for talent emigration. In the light of an ageing population, easy and timely access to healthcare, even in remote areas, gains additional importance. This does not only require the exploration and incorporation of innovative, potentially digital or mobile, services and care models, but imposes the need to rethink skill requirements in a sector that is heavily exposed to demographic challenges while also being required to go through a green and digital transition at the same time.

Furthermore, in a world where flexible working arrangements and remote working have become pivotal elements of a working life, considered by many young talents when making career decisions, it is essential that also the health sector prospects opportunities offering greater flexibility, leading to a more appealing value proposition.

Finally, with the drastic demographic change projected for the years to come, it is vital to think about the right models that would allow for an inclusion of an ageing but often healthy population into the workforce to benefit from decades of profound experience and to close yawning talent gaps.

Objectives of the group

The Health WG is committed to support necessary developments on a policy level but also on the ground, by contributing to the analyses of existing obstacles and finding possible solutions that can help pave the way to remove regional and social disparities. Specifically, the Health WG has dedicated their work to addressing the following issues:

1. The need for upskilling and reskilling the healthcare workforce in Europe, particularly in the light of skills required to master the tripartite transition (demographic, digital, green).
2. The need for new service models to ensure high-quality, accessible, and affordable healthcare services, which may desirably also result in improved working conditions for health practitioners.
3. The need to find models that allow to harness an ageing but healthy population.

For further information, please read more about the different topics in the respective issue papers.

Envisioned outputs

During its first year in operation, the Working Groups investigated, framed and described the issues they deem most prominent and which they would like to address (please see the issue papers in the download section). The groups have now moved on from this initial incubation phase to the delivery phase, working on the production of intermediary and final outputs.

As intermediary outputs, the Health Working Group is focussing on:

1. A Good Practices Catalogue (Volume 1), in collaboration with all other WGs. The catalogue will present a pool of cases from across the WGs, combined with initial reflections on their contribution to harnessing talent. Health WG members have collected good practices focusing on the promotion of skills in the health sector, promoting new service models and working conditions as well as harnessing the opportunities that come with an ageing population.
2. A briefing paper, based on the results of a survey specifically designed to further understand the need for a revision of service models and to analyse the challenging working conditions, which are a prime contributor to sectorial talent emigration.

As final outputs, the Health Working Group is looking at:

1. An overarching recommendation paper identifying theme specific recommendations linked to a) improving service models and working conditions, b) overcoming challenges and harnessing opportunities linked to an ageing population and c) upskilling and reskilling the health sector as well as presenting cross-cutting recommendations addressing multiple of the specified themes.
2. A Recommendation paper on access to essential services and quality of life, in collaboration with all other WGs (Leader: Territorial WG). The Health WG will provide suggestions and ideas for potential actions that policymakers should consider to ensure unrestricted access to high-quality health services that contribute to enhancing the overall quality of life for all Europeans.
3. A Good Practices Catalogue (Volume 2), in collaboration with all other WGs. The catalogue will follow a similar structure to the first edition. The publication of this second catalogue will allow the Health WG to contribute with additional good practice cases that are relevant to the issues tackled by the Health WG.

For more details, please visit the strategic roadmap document in the download section.

Meet our members

What the WG Leaders have to say

During our last physical meeting, we have asked our WG Leaders a few questions. Please watch the video below to understand what motivates them to be part of the HTP community and how they think the work of the groups can add value.

Downloads