European doctors' Summer Magazine: What role for prevention in solving the health workforce crisis?
The two main themes of the magazine are the ongoing health workforce crisis and the need for prevention to ease pressure on the health system. The editorial by CPME Vice President Dr Andreas Botzlar warns that when the health workforce breaks, the system follows. He urges EU institutions and national authorities to seize this moment to move beyond declarations and deliver the concrete, coordinated strategies and investments needed to support Europe’s healthcare professionals and ensure high-quality care for all patients.
We include an in-depth report our high-level conference at the European Parliament, “Solutions for the European Health Workforce Crisis” generously hosted by MEP Dr András Kulja and MEP Tilly Metz, sharing four take-home messages and providing the views of the hosting MEPs who emphasised that the health workforce crisis is a shared problem across European countries and the need to establish common solutions.
Investing in prevention can significantly reduce the burden on the health workforce by decreasing the number of people who require intensive medical care. As the most sustainable healthcare is the reduced need for healthcare, three guest articles provide a view on action on how to stop illness before it starts, including a forward-looking perspective on prevention medicine research by the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.
Two articles focus on alcohol harm at a vital moment. WHO/Europe reports on the recently launched European Health Alliance on Alcohol (EHAA), a coalition of medical, clinical, and health professional organisations determined to tackle the harm caused by alcohol. In addition, the Irish Medical Organisation provides an update on the progress of Ireland’s Public Health Bill, which introduces a ground-breaking range of evidence-based measures to reduce alcohol consumption. However, seven years after the Act was passed, the legislation is still not fully implemented, and this week deadline for compliance has been delayed by the Irish government until 2028. The EHAA published a letter urging for the timely implementation of the legislation.
Our EU Policy Adviser, Diogo Teixeira Pereira, provides an article explaining why paper medicine package leaflets matter to patients and calling for them to be maintained by pharmaceutical companies in the paper format, and the electronic format should be a complementary tool.
Finally, FEMS President Dr Alessandra Spedicato writes about doctors in the digital age: rights, protections and the role of trade unions. She provides a perspective on why emerging technologies will require trade unions to work with teams of doctors, unionists, legal experts and AI specialists to ensure quality and safety of care — for both patients and practitioners.