Health workforce policies in OECD countries: Right jobs, right skills, right places
Health workers are the cornerstone of health systems, playing a central role in providing health services to the population and improving health outcomes. The demand and supply of health workers have increased over time in all OECD countries, with jobs in the health and social sector accounting for more than 10% of total employment now in several OECD countries.
Despite this growth, discussions about health workforce issues in OECD countries often continue to focus on shortages of health workers, with persisting concerns that the upcoming retirement of the 'baby-boom' generation of doctors and nurses might exacerbate such shortages. This publication finds that OECD countries anticipated this wave of retirement by increasing student intakes in medical and nursing education programmes over the past decade. In addition, pension reforms and other initiatives have increased retention rates of doctors and nurses in the profession, also contributing to maintain if not increasing the supply. In this context, health workforce concerns have shifted from worries of widespread shortages towards more specific issues related to ensuring the right mix of health workers, with the right skills, and providing services in the right places, to better respond to changing population health needs.
This publication analyses recent trends and policies adopted by OECD countries affecting the demand and supply of health workers. While it focuses on doctors and nurses given the predominant role they continue to play, it also highlights efforts underway to move beyond these traditional professional boundaries. Addressing the future health needs of ageing populations, with many more people living with one or more chronic conditions, will require more innovations in health service delivery than those we have seen so far. There will be a need to use more effectively new technologies and the skills of different categories of health workers at all levels, and to provide more effective access to services to people, wherever they live.
DOI: 10.1787/9789264239517-en