Juan
International Perspectives
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Workforce planning has always been an important topic in the healthcare world but none more than today. With coronavirus cases at an all-time, combated with the national labor shortage, it is almost impossible to navigate a successful workforce plan. Workforce planning is essential to the healthcare field because it ensures that the right numbers of medical professionals are in the right places to meet the need of the public. One country that I would like to analyze in particular is the United Kingdom. The National Health Service (NHS) is the largest publicly funded healthcare system in the United Kingdom and provides free healthcare to UK residents regardless of nationality. Of course, with free healthcare comes more patients and longer wait times, so how can a company that is top 10 in the European Union proportionality meet the healthcare needs of patients? The question is simple, seek and recruit more medical professionals and construct a workforce plan that will meet the needs of the UK citizens. The UK’s national policy has been to provide an adequate supply of medical professionals while avoiding overproduction, unnecessary overhead costs, and unemployment (Goldacre, 1998). In order to achieve such a policy, the UK has been actively controlling the number of medical posts in each specialty and location (Goldacre, 1998). There are many factors that tend to increase the demand for healthcare professionals in the UK, such as; increase in population, advances in the medical field and medicine, and an increase in the scope of treatment. As demand increases, the supply for healthcare must increase as well. Considering this, the Union’s Working Time Directive has put a restriction on the number of hours that a trainee can work from 58 to 48 hours per week (Fried, 2008 pg.39). This was done so that healthcare systems like the National Health Service in the UK can increase the number of trainees throughout their healthcare facilities.
Fried, B. J. (Ed.). (2008). Human resources in healthcare: Managing for success (3rd ed.). Health Administration Press.
Goldacre, M. (1998). Planning the United Kingdom’s medical workforce. On present assumptions UK medical school intake needs to increase. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 316(7148), 1846–1847.
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.316.7148.1846
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Ashley
The repercussions of Canada’s inadequate data collection
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The article Poor Health Workforce Planning is Costly, Risky, and Inequitable stressed that Canada needs to update its strategies in planning the health workforce. Bourgeault, Simkin, and Chamberland-Rowe stated that Canada doesn’t have the data collected that would be beneficial to planning their workforce (Bourgeault et al, 2019). Without proper data, Canada cannot strategically plan how many health care workers they need to provide adequate care for all Canadians. According to Bourgeault and colleagues, “Although the health workforce is growing at twice the rate of the labour force in general (103% v. 47% from 1987 to 2017), there is increasing concern about whether the supply of health workers can meet the needs of today’s population or will be able to handle future demands on the health system” (Bourgeault et al, 2019). Since they haven’t collected the proper data of how many workers they have compared to what they might need in the future, Canada could run into the problem of not having enough workers for the growing number of people who need care. This could turn out to be risky for their healthcare system if not turned around and properly planned out.
Not being able to plan for the future increase in the workforce needed could also turn out to be costly for the Canadian healthcare system. Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals will up their costs of treatment if the demand for care is more than the workers they have. This is why it is important that proper planning is done to limit the price increase in services.
Inadequate planning and data collection are severely hurting the Canadian healthcare system. According to the article, “Not knowing exactly who comprises the health workforce and how they work also has important equity implications, especially as the health sector consists predominantly of women” (Bourgeault et al, 2019). The equitable impact of inadequate planning in Canada will take a toll on their efficiency. Since the field is predominantly women, the planning should be more focused on their needs. This is so they can feel heard and the system will run more smoothly. Knowing the female to male ratio and planning accordingly will help plan for a better system in the future. Proper data collection is necessary to understand who and how many workers Canada has and will need in upcoming years.
Overall, the article addresses important issues that need to be addressed in Canada. By planning their healthcare system out better, they can increase their preparedness to address issues in the future. Canada needs to implement a better way to retrieve and analyze healthcare data in order to address the problems in their field and plan accordingly. Efficiency in their system will increase with proper planning and data collection.
Source:
Bourgeault, I., Simkin, S., & Chamberland-Rowe, C. (2019, October 21). Poor health workforce planning is costly, risky and inequitable. CMAJ.
https://www.cmaj.ca/content/191/42/E1147
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