The European Parliament has backed a long-term EU response to the health workforce crisis. For healthcare managers, the next question is implementation: how to plan, retain, develop and organise the workforce needed to sustain safe and resilient health services.
European Union | 18 September 2026
On 17 September 2026, the European Parliament adopted its report
“An EU health workforce crisis plan: sustainability of healthcare systems and employment and working conditions in the healthcare sector”
(2025/2062(INI)).
The own-initiative report does not create new legal obligations for hospitals or healthcare organisations. It does, however, establish a clear political direction: Europe’s health workforce challenge requires a longer-term approach connecting workforce availability, planning, skills, retention, working conditions and the sustainability of health systems.
From workforce shortages to organisational capacity
For hospitals, workforce shortages are not only a recruitment issue. They affect service capacity, access, patient safety, organisational resilience and the ability to transform models of care.
The management question is therefore not simply “How many professionals do we need?” It is also “What competencies will we need, how can we retain and develop them, and how should services and roles evolve around the workforce available?”
What Parliament is asking for
The Parliament’s report supports a more comprehensive European approach to the health workforce, including stronger workforce planning, increased training capacity, recruitment and retention, professional development, improved working conditions and better anticipation of future workforce needs.
It also places workforce sustainability within the wider transformation of European health systems. Multidisciplinary working, skills development, professional mobility, digitalisation and new models of care all form part of the discussion about how Europe can maintain healthcare capacity in the years ahead.
Plan
Move from short-term vacancy management towards forecasting future workforce demand, supply and competency needs.
Retain
Treat retention, professional development and organisational conditions as core components of workforce sustainability.
Develop
Identify emerging skills and support continuous development as clinical practice, technology and models of care evolve.
Redesign
Use multidisciplinary teams, appropriate skill mix and service redesign to make better use of available competencies.
Workforce planning becomes a strategic management capability
One of the most relevant implications for healthcare managers is the growing emphasis on anticipating workforce supply and demand rather than responding only after shortages become critical.
Hospitals increasingly need to connect workforce information with service demand, demographics, retirement profiles, vacancies, turnover, education capacity and future competency requirements. This means bringing workforce planning closer to organisational strategy, capacity planning and investment decisions.
It also requires a broader understanding of skill mix. The objective is not simply to substitute one profession for another, but to understand which competencies are required for each part of a care pathway and how multidisciplinary teams can be organised safely and effectively.
Mobility can help — but it is not the whole answer
The Parliament’s decision comes in the same week as the European Commission presented its Fair Labour Mobility Package. The package includes proposals to make the recognition of professional qualifications faster and more digital, alongside measures on skills portability and social-security coordination. The proposals now require consideration by the European Parliament and the Council.
For healthcare organisations, easier professional mobility could reduce some barriers to cross-border recruitment. But mobility primarily redistributes available professionals between health systems. Sustainable workforce policy also depends on training capacity, retention, professional development and the ability of healthcare organisations to use available skills effectively.
Five priorities for healthcare managers
- Forecast: connect workforce data with future service demand and capacity requirements.
- Retain: understand why professionals stay, leave or reduce their participation in the workforce.
- Develop: identify the competencies required by changing clinical, digital and organisational models.
- Redesign: review roles, teams and care pathways where different skill combinations can improve capacity and continuity.
- Integrate: connect workforce strategy with digital transformation, finance, service planning and organisational governance.
Digital transformation and workforce transformation must move together
Digital health, automation and artificial intelligence may help reduce administrative burden and support healthcare professionals, but technology should not be treated as a separate workforce strategy.
New tools change workflows, responsibilities and competency requirements. Their value therefore depends on how well organisations prepare professionals, redesign processes and ensure that technology supports — rather than adds complexity to — clinical and managerial work.
From European policy to implementation
The Parliament’s resolution is not legislation and responsibility for organising and delivering healthcare remains primarily with Member States. Its importance lies in the direction it signals: workforce sustainability is increasingly being considered as a European health-system challenge rather than only a national employment issue.
For the European Association of Hospital Managers, the implementation perspective is particularly important. Europe needs sufficient numbers of healthcare professionals, but sustainable health systems will also depend on whether healthcare organisations have the management capacity to forecast needs, retain talent, develop competencies and redesign services around the workforce available.
Forecast. Retain. Develop. Redesign. Lead.
Europe’s workforce challenge is also a healthcare-management challenge.
Official resources
This article provides a healthcare-management perspective on the European Parliament’s own-initiative resolution. The resolution is not directly binding legislation and does not alter the responsibilities of Member States for the organisation and delivery of healthcare.
Secretary-General perspective
Europe’s health workforce challenge will not be solved by recruitment alone. Healthcare organisations also need the management capacity to anticipate future needs, retain and develop professionals, redesign roles and services, and connect workforce strategy with capacity and digital transformation.
Leandro Luís · Secretary-General, European Association of Hospital Managers