I have to choose which patients will get the greatest
chance to survive. That's not how it should be
for the last decade. Stockholm based Doctor Aquila Wa
and nurse Jenny Patterson have been on the front lines
of the health care crisis engulfing several parts of Europe
. After years of underfunding the COVID-19 pandemic and a
fast aging population. Health systems across the continent are
facing a potential breaking point. Surges of flu COVID
and respiratory viruses filled emergency rooms this winter. While
medical professionals from Rome to Berlin walked out over staff
shortages and pay our hospitals are getting full almost every
day and it leads to a one in one out
situation where we have to choose between different patients that
all need hospital care. We are constantly forced to
break rules, break routines and our moral compass.
The situation is exacerbated by mounting structure problems across Europe
. Spending on health was flat as a percentage of
GDP for more than a decade. Even as the
cost of drugs, diagnostics and treatments increased, resulting
in stagnant salaries and tighter hospital budgets. While spending
did jump during the COVID pandemic, much of that
went to one time and emergency costs such as extra
beds and Coronavirus vaccines. Yeah, another issue is
Europe's aging population care for older populations is generally more
expensive. In 2020 about 1/5 of the Eu's 448
million people were aged over 65. That's 3% points
higher than a decade earlier. And health care workers
are getting old too. According to the World Health
Organization, the aging of health care professionals in Europe
is a ticking time bomb in France. For example
, nearly half of doctors are over the age of
55, making health care systems more resilient will require
countries across Europe to up their spending. Health care
professionals. We've spoken to have pleaded for money for
years but their calls have often been ignored by politicians
instead go for one of solutions that played well with
the electorate because fixing European health care is going to
be expensive. According to the US, its member
states would have spent 1.4% of GDP to make health
care systems more resilient. And most of this come
to front line staff under the current conditions, frustrated
health care workers might choose to leave the profession,
creating a snowball effect.