Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-21T17:33:29.236Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Labour migration of doctors and nurses and the impact on the quality of health care in Eastern European countries: The case of Poland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Piotr Żuk ,
Paweł Żuk  and
Justyna Lisiewicz-Jakubaszko
Piotr Żuk*
Affiliation:
University of Wrocław, Poland
Paweł Żuk
Affiliation:
Centre for Civil Rights and Democracy Research, Poland
Justyna Lisiewicz-Jakubaszko
Affiliation:
4th Military Clinical Hospital, Poland
*
Piotr Żuk, Instytut Socjologii (Institute of Sociology), University of Wrocław, ul. Koszarowa 3, 51-149 Wrocław, Poland. Email: pzuk@uni.wroc.pl
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The purpose of this commentary article is to explain the causes and effects of the economic migration of health care workers from Poland to Western countries, and to analyse the impact of the migration of doctors and nurses on the functioning of the public health system. We use data from the National Central Statistical Office, our own preliminary research, social surveys and the Watch Health Care database. Domestic data are analysed and compared with trends in Western Europe as described in Eurostat and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reports. The decreasing number of active physicians remaining in the health care system results in long waits for specialist appointments. The demand for doctors from Central and Eastern Europe will continue to grow. Consequently, there will be a further outflow of medical staff from Poland and other countries in the region and the current problems with access to health care will continue.

Keywords

I00I11J61DoctorsEastern Europeglobalisationhealth care systemhealth personnellabour migrationnursespublic healthsemi-periphery
Type
New research
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 30 , Issue 2: Symposia: Australian Regulatory Failure: Labour Markets and Banking Practice Youth Precarity , June 2019 , pp. 307 - 320
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agrawal, A, Kapur, D, McHale, J, et al . (2011) Brain drain or brain bank? The impact of skilled emigration on poor-country innovation. Journal of Urban Economics 69(1): 43–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrijasevic, R, Sacchetto, D (2016) From labour migration to labour mobility? The return of the multinational worker in Europe. Transfer 22(2): 219–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnholtz, J, Hansen, NW (2013) Labour market specific institutions and the working conditions of labour migrants: the case of Polish migrant labour in the Danish labour market. Economic and Industrial Democracy 34(3): 401–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atake, EH (2018) The impacts of migration on maternal and child health services utilisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from Togo. Public Health 162: 16–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bobek, A, Wickham, J, Moriarty, E, et al . (2018) Is money always the most important thing? Polish construction workers in Ireland. Irish Journal of Sociology 26(2): 162–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Böhm, K, Landwehr, C (2014) The Europeanization of health care coverage decisions: EU-regulation, policy learning and cooperation in decision-making. Journal of European Integration 36(1): 17–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Central Statistical Office (GUS) (2017) Zdrowie i ochrona zdrowia w 2016 r. Warszawa: GUS, Departament Badań Społecznych I Warunków Życia and Urząd Statystyczny W Krakowie.Google Scholar
Chowdhury, A, Żuk, P (2018) From crisis to crisis: capitalism, chaos and constant unpredictability. The Economic and Labour Relations Review 29(4): 375–393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connell, J (2010) Migration and the Globalisation of Health Care: The Health Worker Exodus? Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cybulska, A (2016) Korzystanie ze świadczeń i ubezpieczeń zdrowotnych. In: Feliksiak, M (ed.) Opinie i diagnozy (Zdrowie i leczenie w Polsce [Health and Treatment in Poland]), vol. 36. Warsaw: CBOS, pp. 45–62.Google Scholar
De Ruijter, A (2016) European integration in the field of human health. Journal of European Integration 38(7): 837–843.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Docquier, F, Rapoport, H (2012) Globalization, brain drain, and development. Journal of Economic Literature 50(3): 681–730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domagała, A, Klich, J (2018) Planning of Polish physician workforce – systemic inconsistencies, challenges and possible ways forward. Health Policy 122(2): 102–108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
European Commission (2018) Professionals moving abroad (establishment). Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/regprof/ (accessed 27 July 2018).Google Scholar
Eurostat (2018a) Healthcare Personnel Statistics – Physicians. Brussels: Eurostat. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Healthcare_personnel_statistics_-_physicians#Healthcare_personnel (accessed 27 July 2018).Google Scholar
Eurostat (2018b) Total general government expenditure on health, 2016 (% of GDP % of total expenditure). Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:Total_general_government_expenditure_on_health,_2016_(%25_of_GDP_%25_of_total_expenditure).png (accessed 27 July 2018).Google Scholar
Ford, M, Kawashima, K (2016) Regulatory approaches to managing skilled migration: Indonesian nurses in Japan. The Economic and Labour Relations Review 27(2): 231–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grabowska-Lusińska, I (2012) Migrantów ścieżki zawodowe bez granic []. Warsaw: Scholar.Google Scholar
Guérot, U (2016) Warum Europa eine Republik werden muss! eine politische Utopie. Bonn: Dietz Verlag.Google Scholar
Hardy, J (2009) Poland’s New Capitalism. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Ifanti, AA, Argyriou, AA, Kalofonou, FH, et al . (2014) Physicians’ brain drain in Greece: a perspective on the reasons why and how to address it. Health Policy 117(2): 210–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Instytut Zdrowia i Demokracji (2017) Możliwości zapewnienia opieki pielęgniarskiej i położniczej w Polsce – diagnoza i perspektywy. Warsaw: Instytut Zdrowia i Demokracji; Naczelna Izba Pielęgniarek i Położnych. Available at: http://nipip.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Debata-IZiD-raport.pdf (accessed 27 July 2018).Google Scholar
Krajewski, R (2015) Lekarze specjaliści i lekarze dentyści specjaliści 2015: Jest za mało a będzie jeszcze mniej. Warsaw: Naczelna Izba Lekarska. Available at: https://www.nil.org.pl/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/101199/Raport-2015-lekarze-specjalisci-i-lekarze-dentysci-specjalisci.pdf (accessed 27 July 2018).Google Scholar
Kubisa, J (2014) Bunt białych czepków. Analiza działalności związkowej pielęgniarek i położnych. Warsaw: Scholar.Google Scholar
Marchal, B, Kegels, G (2003) Health workforce imbalances in times of globalization: brain drain or professional mobility? International Journal of Health Planning and Management 18: S89–S101.Google ScholarPubMed
Naczelna Izba Pielęgniarek i Położnych (2017a) Strategia na rzecz rozwoju pielęgniarstwa i położnictwa w Polsce []. Warsaw: Naczelna Izba Pielęgniarek i Położnych. Available at: http://nipip.pl/strategia-rzecz-rozwoju-pielegniarstwa-poloznictwa-polsce/ (accessed 4 October 2018).Google Scholar
Naczelna Izba Pielęgniarek i Położnych (2017b) Zabezpieczenie społeczeństwa polskiego w świadczenia pielęgniarek i położnych: Raport Naczelnej Rady Pielęgniarek i Położnych. 2nd ed. Warsaw: Naczelna Izba Pielęgniarek I Położnych.Google Scholar
Okeke, EN (2013) Brain drain: do economic conditions ‘push’ doctors out of developing countries? Social Science & Medicine 98: 169–178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2016) Health at a Glance: Europe 2016: State of Health in the EU Cycle. Paris: OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2017) Health at a Glance 2017: OECD Indicators. Paris: OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
Pang, T, Lansang, MA, Haines, A (2002) Brain drain and health professionals: a global problem needs global solutions. British Medical Journal 324(7336): 499–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Public Opinion Research Centre (CBOS) (2016a) Praca za granicą [Working abroad]. Report on research conducted by CBOS, no. 175/2016. Warsaw: CBOS.Google Scholar
Public Opinion Research Centre (CBOS) (2016b) Zdrowie i leczenie w Polsce [Health and Treatment in Poland]. In: Felisiak, M (ed) Opinie i diagnozy, vol. 36 (Report on Research conducted by CBOS). Warsaw: CBOS.Google Scholar
Shubin, S, Dickey, H (2013) Integration and mobility of Eastern European migrants in Scotland. Environment and Planning A 45(12): 2959–2979.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solecka, M (2017) Jak pokonać chory system? Krakow: Wydawnictwo WAM.Google Scholar
Solska, J (2017) Lekarze rezydenci protestują. Polityka, 17 October. Available at: https://www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/kraj/1724076,1,lekarze-rezydenci-protestuja.read (accessed 27 July 2018).Google Scholar
Vasev, N (2017) Divergent resources and convergent transposition strategies – the East-West cleavage and its implications for transposition. Journal of European Integration 39(3): 271–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallerstein, I (2004) World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Watch Health Care Foundation (WHC) (2017) Barometr WHC: Raport na temat zmian w dostępności do gwarantowanych świadczeń zdrowotnych w Polsce nr 17/2/08/2017. Krakow: WHC.Google Scholar
Watson, P (2011) Fighting for life: healthcare and democracy in capitalist Poland. Critical Social Policy 31(1): 53–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wysocka, M (2015) Praca za granicą wciąż interesująca. Puls Medycyny, 27 January. Available at: https://pulsmedycyny.pl/praca-za-granica-wciaz-interesujaca-892044 (accessed 27 July 2018).Google Scholar
Żuk, P (2017a) Employment structures, employee attitudes and workplace resistance in neoliberal Poland. The Economic and Labour Relations Review 28(1): 91–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Żuk, P (2017b) Non-alternative reality? On the misery of the Left in Eastern Europe: the case of Poland. Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe 25(1): 63–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Żuk, P, Żuk, P (2017a) Retirees without pensions and welfare: the social effects of pension privatization in Poland. Critical Social Policy 38(2): 407–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Żuk, P, Żuk, P (2017b) Women’s health as an ideological and political issue: restricting the right to abortion, access to in vitro fertilization procedures, and prenatal testing in Poland. Health Care for Women International 38(7): 689–704.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Żuk, P, Żuk, P (2018a) Multimodal analysis of the nationalist discourse and historical inspirations of the spectacle of the populist right in Poland between 2015 and 2017. Discourse, Context and Media 26: 135–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Żuk, P, Żuk, P (2018b) Offshoring, labour migration and neoliberalisation: nationalist responses and alternatives in Eastern Europe. The Economic and Labour Relations Review 29(1): 97–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Żuk, P, Żuk, P, Lisiewicz-Jakubaszko, J (2019) The anti-vaccine movement in Poland: the socio-cultural conditions of the opposition to vaccination and threats to public health. Vaccine 37(11): 1491–1494.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed