This blog has been rather neglected over the summer. Colleagues sometimes ask me how I find the time to write it. Sometimes I wonder myself! Usually it is on planes back from wherever I’ve been but the past six weeks have been so hectic trying to clear the backlog of unfinished papers and books. I even discovered a new condition – shoulder injury from over use of the mouse pad on a laptop!
I did, however, take one short break from writing in August to teach on our new summer school. For many years the Observatory ran a very successful summer school in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It was, however, a huge amount of work to organise it and as the tourists returned to Croatia after stability returned to the region, it became impossibly difficult to sort out the flights and accommodation.
There was, however, an enormous demand to recommence the summer school and this year we decided to do so, moving across the Adriatic to Venice. Our colleagues in the Veneto region had identified a superb study centre, San Servolo, a short journey on the water bus from Saint Marc’s Square.
About 40 participants from across Europe, and even a few from beyond, came together to examine one of the most pressing issues facing health systems today - the people who work in them. The problem is simple. We never seem to have the right people in the right place at the right time. The solutions are much more elusive.
The first difficulty is knowing who is in the health workforce. Statistics are plagued by problems of comparability, especially where health systems are fragmented. There are always interface problems, especially where health and social care intersect. And the words don’t even mean the same things. Unfortunately, a nurse trained in one country may have a very different set of skills from one trained in another.
A second is how to keep pace with the changing nature of health care. Patterns of disease are changing. Complex chronic diseases are now by far the leading contributors to the overall burden of disease in industrialised countries. We need people with new skills and perspectives, who can work in multi-disciplinary teams and who can work in partnership with patients. In some countries we need to accept that doctors are not always the best people to manage chronic diseases. There is now compelling evidence that nurse-run clinics for conditions such as diabetes and asthma get better results.
A third is the increased movement of people across the globe. This is an especially acute problem in the European Union’s new member states, where wages are much lower than in the west.
There are no easy solutions. However, it is good to be able to take some time out, in a place that is so conducive to thought and contemplation, to learn from each other.
The next task is to decide what the subject will be next year!