Topic: 2024-Addressing Healthcare Worker Shortage
Country: Denmark
Delegate Name: Lucy VanHaerents
02/14/24
Submitted To : World Health Organization
From : Denmark
Subject : Global Healthcare Worker Shortage
The nation of Denmark realizes the concerns regarding the growing labor shortage in the medical field that have affected Denmark and the world and is dedicated to changing its internal healthcare system and supporting struggling nations in acknowledging and addressing the urgency of the situation. An estimated 10 million absences in workers will exist in 2024 alone, and the shortage continues to grow. It is imperative for nations across the globe to cooperate in addressing this concern.
While Denmark has the second highest nurse/doctor to citizen ratio in the world, even well-equipped, first-world countries have begun to feel the stress of the labor shortage. While Denmark pays healthcare workers some of the highest salaries globally, getting certified in the medical field, if you received training internationally, is complicated.
Domestically, Denmark needs to loosen unnecessary regulations so it is easier for international workers to get hired in the Danish medical system. While university and medical school is free for Danish citizens, international students have to pay very costly fees, and removing these barriers could increase the number of students and therefore the amount of future medical practitioners.
On the international scale, incentivizing medical positions in middle-lower income countries is crucial to keeping medical professionals from emigrating to other nations for better career opportunities. Lack of socioeconomic opportunities has pushed trained medical professionals out of their homes and into other nations’ healthcare systems, at the expense of their home countries. The World Health Organization needs to address the fact that healthcare workers across the globe are struggling to remain in their profession and it is crucial that countries support their medical staff.
The further into the collective global labor deficit we get, the more difficult it will be to dig ourselves out in the future, which is why Denmark is urging the World Health Organization to provide global aid and incentives to struggling healthcare systems.
Bibliography:
Hamilton, Ben. “Strict Work Permit Access Hindering Hospitals Seeking to Address Nurse Shortages.” The Copenhagen Post, 15 May 2023,
“Opinion: How Can the World Solve Its Shortage of Health Workers?” CNN, 7 Dec. 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/07/health/opinion-how-can-the-world-solve-its-shortage-of-health-workers/index.html. Accessed 15 Feb. 2024.
Ritzau/The Local. “‘Almost One in Eight’ Nurses Leave Danish Health Service.” The Local, 20 June 2023, https://www.thelocal.dk/20230620/almost-one-in-eight-nurses-leave-danish-health-service. Accessed 15 Feb. 2024.
