Meeting the Staff Shortage Crisis With Digital Solutions
By Eric Thépaut, Boston Scientific executive vice president and president, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Originally published by Health Tech World online
Right now, the global healthcare industry faces a worldwide staffing shortage that is roundly expected to worsen.
A combination of factors is to blame, some pandemic-related – including the tragic scale of COVID-related deaths among healthcare workers – and others structural.
In Europe, where I live, the impact of the shortage has already grown profound:
- In France, 30 per cent of hospital doctors — some 9,000 specialists — are missing in the public sector. The staffing shortage is severe enough that hospitals have closed more than 4,300 beds, and at times, have been forced to stop accepting patients in non-emergency departments.
- In Germany, 22,000 nursing positions are vacant (compared to 3,900 positions five years ago) and 57 per cent of hospitals report having to restrict services due to staff shortages.
- In Spain, the shortage has meant that nurses currently treat double and sometimes triple the number of patients recommended by the European Union.
Unfortunately, the data suggests that resolution is nowhere in sight; the World Health Organization projects a worldwide workforce shortage in 2030 of some 15 million healthcare workers.
Interestingly enough, I’ve noticed that when we business leaders wring our hands over the crisis, we tend to speak about it foremost in economic terms.
Amid all the necessary business talk, I implore us to not lose sight of our true focus: the real-world impact this shortage is having on patient care.
Let me tell you about the impact on one such patient: my sister, Sylvie.
