Mitigating health workforce migration in Romania: policy lessons for Europe

Tomas  Zapata; Teodor Cristian  Blidaru; Alexandru  Rafla; Radu  Comsa; Natasha Azzopardi  Muscat; Yanina  Andersen; Cris  Scotter; James  Buchan; Ioana  Novac; Khamis Al Alawy; Nicolae Dragoș  Garofil

doi:10.1186/s12960-025-01003-5

Mitigating health workforce migration in Romania: policy lessons for Europe

Tomas Zapata
, Teodor Cristian Blidaru
, Alexandru Rafla
, Radu Comsa
, Natasha Azzopardi Muscat
, Yanina Andersen
, Cris Scotter
, James Buchan
, Ioana Novac
, Khamis Al Alawy
, Nicolae Dragoș Garofil

WHO Regional Office for Europe
Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy
RCSI Research Institute
WHO CC
World Health Organization Country Office Romania

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

26 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Health workforce migration is an important challenge for healthcare systems across Europe, with Romania facing one of the most significant impacts following its accession into the European Union. This article examines
the trends, drivers, and consequences of health workforce migration in Romania, particularly physicians and nurses, explores policy interventions aimed at mitigating its effects and assesses their effectiveness. The analysis highlights
the strategies employed to retain and attract healthcare workers, including financial incentives, regulatory reforms, and expanded educational opportunities. The study shows a two-thirds reduction in the annual migration
of Romanian doctors to mainly countries of the WHO European Region, decreasing from 1532 in 2012 to just 461 in 2021, demonstrating the significant impact of policy interventions on workforce retention. While these
interventions have successfully increased the overall number of health professionals in Romania and reduced overseas migration, challenges remain in ensuring equitable distribution and addressing workforce shortages in key
specialties and occupations. Romania’s experience offers valuable lessons for other European countries facing similar challenges and offers policy lessons for addressing one of Europe’s most pressing healthcare priorities.

Original language	English
Article number	31
Number of pages	12
Journal	Human Resources for Health
Volume	23
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-025-01003-5
Publication status	Published - 7 Jul 2025
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modifed the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not
permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

Health policy interventions
Health system reform
Health workforce
Health workforce migration
Health workforce mobility
Public health
Workforce retention

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Public Administration
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Access to Document

10.1186/s12960-025-01003-5Licence: CC BY

Al Alawy2025_VoRFinal published version, 2.06 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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AU - Scotter, Cris

AU - Buchan, James

AU - Novac, Ioana

AU - Al Alawy, Khamis

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Mitigating health workforce migration in Romania: policy lessons for Europe

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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