[Human resources of the health system: status and evolution in industrialized countries]

The physician-population ratio is high in the Mediterranean countries: nearly 4 doctors per 1000 population in Spain, more than 4 in Greece, nearly 6 in Italy. In Northern Europe, the ratio is lower. On the other side, as concerns nurses and other paramedical personnels, their ratio is much higher in the Scandinavian countries than in the South of Europe. Since 1945 onwards, all countries in Western Europe and Northern America have steadily increased the number of their health workers. The trend will no doubt continue during the decades ahead. The question is to what extent the current cost containment policies can decelerate this upward trend. As concerns physicians, the future panorama will be different. The "graduate-boom" cohorts of the 70's and 80's will reach their retirement age between 2010 and 2025 and will not be totally replaced. In other words, the (currently) plethoric medical profession will decrease after 2010 in most Western European countries, precisely at a time of growing population aging.