Policies to address Israel’s physician workforce challenges

Background Israeli policymakers have four key concerns about Israel’s future physician workforce: an insufficient number of physicians, an uneven quality of training, a geographic maldistribution, and a sub-optimal specialty mix. Recently, Israeli policymakers have launched a multi-year, multifaceted effort to address those workforce challenges. This comprehensive review of the policy responses seeks to fill a gap in the English-language literature, making it possible for scholars worldwide to contribute to the development of effective Israeli workforce policies and their evaluation. Methods This integrative article was written by a group of senior and mid-level professionals based at the Ministry of Health, all of whom are significantly involved in healthcare workforce issues. In writing the article, the authors drew on a wide range of official government reports, internal government memos, journal articles, OECD reports, Israeli and OECD databases, and Israeli committee reports. Findings The policy responses fall into the following six clusters: 1. Implementing strategic workforce planning and data-informed workforce regulation. 2. Increasing the number of students trained annually in Israeli medical schools. 3. Increasing the supply of well-trained physicians from non-Israeli medical schools. 4. Streamlining and modernizing post-graduate medical education. 5. Increasing the number of young people from the geographic periphery who successfully pursue medical careers. 6. Expanding training and employment opportunities for advanced practice professionals. The multi pronged workforce modernization agenda that Israel is now implementing—at remarkable speed and with substantial budgetary resources—is similar to that which many OECD countries have been building gradually over the past decade. It has also been adapted to Israel’s unique demographic pressures, reliance on foreign trained physicians, and longstanding geographic disparities. Conclusions Successfully addressing Israel’s many workforce challenges will require a stepping up of the analysis, creativity, resourcefulness, cooperation and budgetary expansion that have characterized recent efforts to meet Israel’s medical workforce needs. To maximize the impact of Israel’s multi-faceted workforce reform, it will also be important to solicit ongoing input from national and international workforce experts.