Doctor shortages persist across Europe, driven by an ageing workforce and graduates avoiding general practice.
Every year, thousands of students begin and complete their medical studies in Europe, yet healthcare workforce shortages persist across the continent.
In 2023, more than 66,000 doctors graduated in the European Union, equivalent to an estimated 15 graduates per 100,000 inhabitants, according to Eurostat – with numbers varying significantly from country to country.
A total of 13,720 doctors graduated in Türkiye, 10,186 in Germany, and 9,795 in Italy - placing these countries among the top three of “doctor producers”.
At the other end of the scale, only 31 doctors completed their studies in Montenegro, 52 in Iceland, and 144 in Estonia.
A large share of graduates in Bulgaria, Romania, and Latvia are foreign citizens who don’t always stay in the country after completing their degree, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), turning these countries into training hubs for doctors and widening differences across the region.
However, countries are working to reverse these trends. Romania, says the World Health
Organization (WHO), has managed to reduce the migration of doctors over the past ten years – from 1,500 doctors migrating in 2012 to just 461 in 2021 – largely due to better pay, training and working conditions in the country.
“Health worker migration is a reality in our interconnected and globalised world, and we have the solutions to ensure it works for all parties. Countries can learn from each other’s experiences,” Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat from WHO Europe said in a statement.
She added that if countries fail to support the movement of health workers fairly, they risk widening health inequities and leaving already fragile health systems unable to cope.
Why more graduates doesn’t mean enough doctors
Despite the growing number of graduates, Europe is facing growing shortages of the health and care workforce. The region is projected to have a shortage of 950,000 health workers by 2030, according to the WHO.
In many countries, the main concern about the shortage of doctors has been a growing lack of general practitioners (GPs).
While the general number of doctors has increased in most countries, the share of GPs has not – across EU countries, about one in five doctors are general practitioners.
“Graduates now are predominantly preferring going into specialities with a specific profile, like dermatology or ophthalmology, that will give them a good work-life balance and quality of life,” Tiago Villanueva, family physician and president of the European Union of General Practitioners/Family Physicians, told Euronews Health.
He said the solution to this problem is not to increase the supply of medical graduates, or to increase the number of slots in family medicine, but to make the speciality more visible, attractive, and popular.
Villanueva also said that, from his experience in Portugal, there is “a bottleneck after medical school” because the capacity to train professionals at the postgraduate level doesn’t match the demand.
“There's limited capacity to train them because it's dependent on the availability of trainers (doctors willing to supervise trainees) and many have left public hospitals, which is where the vast majority of the postgraduate training takes place in Portugal,” he added.
Where are the doctors?
These shortages are not evenly distributed across Europe. When looking at practising physicians, Austria recorded the highest number relative to population, with 551 practising doctors per 100,000 inhabitants. Italy and Cyprus followed, each with 535.
By contrast, Finland reported the lowest ratio with just 288 practising physicians per 100,000 inhabitants.
Comparing 2013 and 2023, the number of medical graduates increased in nearly all EU countries – the Netherlands being the only country where it remained unchanged.
Ageing healthcare workforce
At the same time, the health workforce is also ageing. In many countries, doctors’ decisions to continue working beyond the retirement age have helped to prevent more severe staff shortages, but many national systems have to prepare for when these professionals retire.
In 2023, nearly one-third of doctors in all EU countries were aged over 55, according to the OECD.
The youngest doctors are in the United Kingdom, Türkiye, Finland, and Romania.
“Countries with a large share of doctors aged over 55 will need to train sufficient numbers of new doctors to replace those retiring over the next decade, according to the Health at a Glance 2025 report by the OECD.
It added that it should also simultaneously implement policies “to encourage current doctors who are willing and able to continue working beyond the standard retirement age”.
