Thursday 9th October 2025 11:00 – 13:00 (GMT+1)
Introduction
Health systems are navigating rapid transformation— driven by ageing populations, emerging health threats, evolving models of care, and technological advancements. These shifts bring both challenges and opportunities, especially in the face of rising service pressures and constrained resources.
By 2030, the World Health Organization (WHO) projects a shortfall of 11.1 million health workers globally, with the greatest impact in low- and middle-income countries. These shortages are compounded by challenging working conditions and high-stress environments, which increases the risk of burnout and can exclude or disincentivise the health workforce, as highlighted in our first seminar of the series.
Building on this— this seminar will explore how health systems and workforce optimisation policies can be redesigned and augmented through workforce capability and technology to enable the recruitment, utilisation, retention, and progression of a competent, digitally literate, and optimised workforce.
We’ll reflect on key challenges and opportunities by exploring the following questions:
- What policy, governance and institutional levers are most effective for delivering localised workforce innovation and improved workforce capability?
- How can countries empower subnational stakeholders to engage in planning and decision-making in ways that keep people, not just systems, at the centre?
- What role can technology, innovation, and digital literacy play in localised workforce optimisation?
- How can policy action for workforce capability and optimisation be leveraged to address national primary health care priorities and inequalities?
Seminar Registration Link
The seminar will be held on Zoom, please click the link below to register for the seminar.
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HpOPzgXDQS-lmaJZdVplag
Meet our Panel
Paul Marsden, Senior Workforce Specialist and Working for Health Team Lead, WHO, Seminar Chair
Paul Marsden is a Senior Health Workforce Specialist at the World Health Organization with over 30 years of international experience in health workforce and health systems policy, planning, and management. He has advised governments across Africa and supported more than 40 countries with strategic guidance and technical expertise. At WHO, Paul leads the joint WHO-ILO-OECD Working for Health programme, advancing the UN High-level Commission’s recommendations on health employment and economic growth. His work has helped catalyze policy action and investment in health workforce education, jobs, and retention, including the Africa Health Workforce Investment Charter and the first Africa Health Workforce Investment Forum.
The rest of our panel will be announced shortly. To receive updates, please email england.tcc@nhs.net to join our mailing list.