Sittings · Document

Adopted text 2026-09-17

An EU health workforce crisis plan: sustainability of healthcare systems and employment and working conditions in the healthcare sector

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✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 18 Sept 2026

Parliament calls for a long-term European healthcare workforce strategy to add at least one million professionals over the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework, covering an estimated EU-wide deficit of around 1,2 million. It asks for safe staffing rules, better working conditions, fair pay, mental health support and protection from violence, and for Member States to adopt national workforce strategies. It seeks easier recognition of qualifications, ethical recruitment, action against brain drain, and measures to keep health workers in underserved regions. It calls for digital tools, telemedicine and the European Health Data Space to complement, not replace, staff and face-to-face care. It demands more EU health funding in the 2028-2034 budget, a health workforce observatory, and stronger primary care and community services.

Key points

  1. Calls on the Commission to develop a European healthcare workforce strategy to increase the workforce by at least one million professionals over the 2028-2034 MFF, consulting EU social partners and professional organisations.
  2. Says EU action must respect subsidiarity, national competences and social partner autonomy, and asks Member States to adopt regularly updated national strategies and long-term workforce plans.
  3. Wants integrated workforce strategies to attract young people, tackle brain drain, align education with health needs, and a separate Erasmus exchange programme for healthcare education and training institutions.
  4. Calls for a Council recommendation on safe staffing, recognition of unsafe staffing as an occupational hazard, and consideration of an obligatory framework with workload controls and doctor-to-patient and nurse-to-patient ratios.
  5. Asks for a standardised EU tool to measure nurses' workload, and for Member States to ensure job security, fair pay, adequate minimum wages, limits on night and long shifts, rest periods and protection from precarious employment.
  6. Calls on the Commission to monitor compliance with the Working Time Directive, and on Member States to fund traineeships, protect junior doctors and residents, and set minimum quality standards for residency programmes.
  7. Demands work-life balance, equal pay, full implementation of the Pay Transparency Directive, protection from gender-based violence, and national action plans against violence towards healthcare professionals.
  8. Calls for mental health and substance-dependency support for the whole healthcare workforce, implementation of the OSH Framework Directive, and action on musculoskeletal disorders and psychosocial risks.
  9. Recommends integrated regional health strategies, recognition and compensation of informal caregivers, and targeted measures for underserved areas including housing, scholarships and tax benefits.
  10. Encourages telemedicine, AI and digital tools as complements to in-person care, and asks Member States to set up national pharmacy workforce strategies and explore upskilling of pharmacists.
  11. Calls for review of the Professional Qualifications Directive, ethical international recruitment under the WHO Global Code, and safeguards so mobility does not cause shortages in remote regions.
  12. Calls for an observatory on workforce supply and demand, more EU health funding in the 2028-2034 MFF with a ring-fenced health budget, and greater support for primary care and community health services.

Who is affected

  • Healthcare workers in the EU, including doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists and care staff, who would gain staffing, pay and working-condition protections.
  • Member States, which are asked to adopt national workforce strategies, safe staffing frameworks and national action plans on violence.
  • Underserved regions such as mountainous, rural, island, remote, outermost and depopulated areas, targeted for incentives and investment.
  • Informal caregivers, predominantly women, whose status Parliament wants recognised and compensated.
  • Women healthcare workers, who face pay gaps, violence and unequal working conditions that the resolution seeks to address.

Figures and deadlines

  • Approximately 1,2 million doctors, nurses and midwives: estimated EU shortage in 2022 to attain universal coverage.
  • 950 000 healthcare workers: shortfall the WHO expects in the EU by 2030.
  • 30 % of medical doctors and 18 % of nurses aged 55 or older; 12 EU countries reporting 40 % of physicians aged 55 and over in 2022.
  • 3,6 % of people aged 16 or older in the EU reported being unable to access medical examination or treatment in 2024.
  • EUR 14 return per euro invested in prevention; NCDs cost the EU over EUR 700 billion annually; AMR costs EUR 11,7 billion in the EU.
  • One in three workers reporting depression or anxiety and one in ten reporting thoughts of ending their life or harming themselves.
  • One in four doctors, especially junior doctors, work more than 50 hours per week; 32 % of doctors and 25 % of nurses are on temporary contracts.
  • Between 60 % and 90 % of nurses report musculoskeletal disorders each year; women make up 78 % of healthcare workers and face a 24 percentage point pay gap.

Legal basis: Articles 4, 6, 9, 45-48, 53, 114, 121, 151, 152, 153, 165, 166, 168(1), 168(5) and 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

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