According to figures from the Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Flemish socialist), more than 5,000 full-time jobs have been created in the healthcare sector during the past two years thanks to the Healthcare Personnel Fund. Most of the new staff are currently working in the country’s hospitals. Most of the new staff that have been recruited via the fund are nurses and healthcare professionals.
More than 5,000 extra full-time jobs in healthcare through the Healthcare Personnel Fund
Published:
In 2019 the Federal Parliament voted to establish the Healthcare Personnel Fund in an effort to address labour shortages in the healthcare sector and to reduce the workload for those already working in healthcare. Since then, more than 400 million euros have been allocated to the fund each year. In the country’s hospitals, the equivalent of 4,862 additional full-time staff have been recruited.
Mr Vandenbroucke’s office told journalists that “75% of those recruited are nurses or healthcare professionals. 87% of hospitals say that they have seen a net increase in staff numbers."
To a lesser extent jobs have also been created in home nursing and community healthcare centres. Across the healthcare sector as a whole an the equivalent of 5,000 additional full-time staff are working in healthcare than was the case in 2019. Nevertheless, hospitals still face big shortages of staff.
In July 2022 the Federal Government provided a one-off payment of 20 million euro. A further 20 million euro was also earmarked for staff working in healthcare during last month budget audit. The money isn’t only be used for the recruitment of additional staff, but also to pay for medical equipment and even to pay for psychological support for healthcare staff. In addition to this resources from the fund also go to training and retraining.
Each year, approximately 1,000 people retrain to become nurses or care assistants. They enter healthcare in addition to graduates from nursing colleges and medical schools.
Despite the efforts that are being made to resolve staff shortage issues, hospitals are still short of staff. As a result of this almost 2,500 beds in the country’s hospital remain unused due to a lack of staff.