TITLE:
Current and Future Insight into Human Resources for Health in Greece
AUTHORS:
Nikolaos Polyzos, Stefanos Karakolias, George Mavridoglou, Panagiotis Gkorezis, Christos Zilidis
KEYWORDS:
Human Resources for Health, Planning, Projections, Stock-and-Flow, Workforce-to-Population
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.3 No.5,
May
7,
2015
ABSTRACT: Background: In the context of the recent
Greek economic crisis and its detrimental impact on healthcare system as well
as the complete absence of a mechanism to map and plan human resources, a need
for rethinking healthcare workforce management at a national level was emerged.
Objectives: The aim of the study was to identify factors that influence the
current and future demand for and supply of human resources in the Greek health
system by specifying and empirically testing a projection model over the period
2015-2017. Methods: The projection model constituted a combination between a
stock-and-flow model and a workforce-to-population ratio approach. This model
was applied twice, once concerning total workforce and full track of new
graduates and once concerning only public sector. Results: The first application
of the model underpinned a sound and rampant oversupply of health
professionals. On the other hand, the second application revealed a need for
reinforcing public sector in terms of new hires especially of nursing and midwifery
staff, and re-distribution of all. Conclusions: The main results indicate that
health policy makers could reach an optimal matching between future supply of
and demand for healthcare workforce by adjusting the flexible supply components.
This presupposes an accurate and stable system of data collection. On the
demand side, it is also important to collect demographics and other
health-related data that are more indicative of health needs than population
metrics.