ROUTE-HWF aims to reduce inequalities in access to healthcare among countries and regions in Europe by supporting EU Member States in designing and implementing their policies related to regional medical deserts. It will do so by: (1) providing a definition and taxonomy of the concept of medical deserts, (2) developing guidelines on how EU Member States can monitor and measure medical deserts (as defined and categorized in the developed taxonomy) at national and subnational levels, (3) providing in-depth insights on factors driving “desertification” and of HWF policy responses and approaches to medical deserts, (4) providing an optimal mix of HWF policy responses and approaches to medical deserts per category of the taxonomy on medical deserts, and (5) developing a roadmap which will support EU Member States in designing and implementing their health workforce policies, actions and initiatives related to medical deserts.

Divided over 3 horizontal WPs and 5 core WPs, the following methods will be used to achieve these aims: a literature study, a country survey among 33 European countries, a database search, five national workshops (NL, FI, ES, PL, HR) with 10 participants each, six in-depth case studies, and a 1,5 day consensus building workshop with 66 participants from 33 countries.

The elements of the ROUTE-HWF roadmap will be strongly rooted in practice and support public authorities and health professionals at national and subnational levels in (a) better understanding the characteristics of medical deserts in their country or region, (b) better monitoring and measuring medical deserts, including the effects of policy measures, and (c) improving the design and implementation of policies to move out of medical deserts in their country or region, by providing a rationale for a mix of policy measures, taking into account relevant contextual factors (including possible legal and other barriers).

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The Project AHEAD will address the challenge of medical deserts and medical desertification in Europe in an effort to help reduce health inequalities. The Project’s objective is to provide support to policy makers in selected Member States and other eligible countries to define, design and implement evidence-based and context-specific reforms in the health workforce field that specifically aim to counteract and/or prevent medical deserts. The approach applied in this Project will build knowledge, encourage (digital) innovation in health service delivery to improve access and apply a participatory approach to public health policy making. The Project will be carried out in Romania, Serbia, Moldova, Italy and the Netherlands and will benefit health policy makers, patients’ organizations, health professionals’ organisations, affected communities and more. The countries were carefully selected to highlight different manifestations of medical deserts and to address interconnectedness as a result of health worker mobility. Activities include: desk research; participatory action research; multi-stakeholder consensus building dialogues; high-level policy dialogues at national and EU level. The dissemination of the Projects’ knowledge products and best practices is a cross-cutting activity, aiming to also inspire duty bearers outside the Project. The consortium will produce several deliverables: policy briefs; a set of contextualized and feasible policy solutions to address medical deserts in the countries; an improved definition and taxonomy of medical deserts; a medical deserts diagnostic monitoring tool; a prototype for a medical deserts visual mapping tool; a tested and replicable approach for participatory health policy making. Our ultimate impact at society and EU level is better access to health services, especially in underserved areas, and more equitable access to sufficient, skilled and motivated health workers, starting with the countries involved in the Project.
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