Brussels, 25 June 2015
The European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) last week issued edition 11 of the HesaMag (Health and Safety Magazine) with a special report entitled "The nursing world at tipping point". It is focusing on the challenges and problems related to the health and safety of health workers, in particular the nursing professions, on the backdrop of the economic crisis in Europe.
The newsletter can be accessed in an English and French language version. It i.a. contains an interview with the Secretary General of HOSPEEM and the Policy Officer Health and Social Services of EPSU. EPSU affiliates were approached to contribute to the articles on Germany and Spain.
Read below the summary text for HESAMAG 11 on the website of the ETUI: "Deteriorating working conditions, lack of staff, job burnout: the health sector has been experiencing a serious crisis for a number of years. Across Europe, the trade unions are ringing alarm bells. The health of their members is at serious risk. In the countries worst affected by the recession, the policies of austerity have made the situation even worse and their knock-on effect has been a reduction in the quality of care. In Spain, the need to reduce the public debt has been very cleverly exploited to push through plans to privatise institutions. The right to health is now at risk, not only for the most vulnerable. Many Spanish nurses, especially younger ones, are heading for Germany. Meanwhile, Germany, which can barely meet the extensive care needs of its older generations, is turning into the laboratory for disgusting social dumping practices. Highly qualified workers there are faced with deteriorating employment and working conditions, especially in care homes for the elderly. Physically and mentally exhausted, fed up watching their private life being whittled away by work, and powerless in the face of the market pressures that are reshaping their sector bit by bit, nurses are planning to leave the profession. There are no signs that the public authorities are aware of the full extent of the malaise."
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