Healthcare to face staff shortage of 100,000 by 2022

This year health care institutes will have to fill about 130 thousand vacancies, according to calculations by benefits agency UWV. But qualified staff is becoming increasingly difficult to find. Over the next four years, staff shortages in healthcare will increase to around 100 thousand people, according to the benefits agency, NU.nl reports.

UWV attributes the growing staff shortage partly to the aging population. Not only is there an increasing number of elderly people in need of specialist and intensive care, but almost a quarter of care workers are also 55-years-old or older and will retire in the coming years.

After years of job losses, the demand for nurses and carers will rise by 1.5 percent this year. There is a particularly high demand for nurses and carers at MBO and HBO level, according to the benefits agency. 80 percent of hospitals, home care and mental health institutions can not fill vacancies on this level. The same is true for half of other healthcare institutions. There is also a high demand for employees who work in medical-technical occupations, such as opticians and dental hygienists.

To deal with the staff shortages in the short term, the UWV proposes that healthcare institutions work on more efficient rosters, extending contracts, and letting service staff take over sone non-healthcare tasks. In the longer term, the agency recommends better recognition and more appreciation for health care workers by employers, and retraining more unemployed people and migrants for healthcare tasks.