Europe’s health worker shortages are being filled with foreign labour – but it could worsen those gaps elsewhere. Albanian medical school graduates are now required to spend three years working in the Balkan country before they can leave – or pay full tuition fees – in a bid to stop the flow of health workers moving abroad, a problem facing many European countries. Most countries need tens of thousands of , and other medical staff as their populations age and develop more health problems, health workers quit or retire, and in nursing careers.
And many are trying to rebuild their workforces by enticing foreign talent from neighbouring countries and beyond. But while the medical reshuffling could alleviate labour shortages in countries that recruit workers from abroad, it could also aggravate them in their countries of origin, according to . Up to 3,500 doctors over a recent 10-year period, according to the Federation of Albanian Doctors in Europe.
“Increasing the labour force requires long-term, costly investments, whereas recruiting foreign-trained professionals offers a quicker fix,” Isilda Mara, a researcher on labour and migration at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, told Euronews Health. Generally, doctors and nurses move from eastern and southern Europe to western and northern Europe, while workers in western and northern Europe move around within the region. Romania, Spain, and France are the countries most likely to send nurses abroad.
