National health insurance payments for healthcare services from the formal public fund for healthcare are further augmented by informal payments from service consumers, used routinely for better access to and higher quality of healthcare service.

Background: When health care reform was started in 1991, the physician workforce in Lithuania was dominated by specialists, and the specialty of family physician (FP) did not exist at all. During fifteen years of Lithuania's independence this specialty evolved rapidly and over 1,900 FPs were trained or retrained. Since 2003, the Lithuanian health care sector has undergone restructuring to optimize the network of health care institutions as well as the delivery of services; specific attention has been paid to the development of services provided by FPs, with more health care services shifted from the hospital level to the primary health care level. In this paper we analyze if an adequate workforce of FPs will be available in the future to take over new emerging tasks.

Considering the changes in education of radiographers, the socio-demographic characteristics of the staff, and the increasing need for radiographers' services, the supply of radiographers during the next two decades will be insufficient. To meet the forecasted demand for radiographers in the perspective scenario, the number of students choosing this specialty from 2013 on should increase by up to 30%.

The aim of this study is to examine the attitudes of Lithuanian pharmacists towards migration to other countries of the European Union or European Economic Area. Using a questionnaire developed by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Labour and Solidarity of France, surveys were sent to 654 Lithuanian pharmacists (response rate 47.5 per cent). Univariate logistic regression was used to estimate risk factors for intention of pharmacists to go abroad. More than one quarter of Lithuanian pharmacists intended to work in other EU/EEA countries; however this was a definitive decision of only 2.3 per cent. Target destination countries were the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The major reasons for leaving were higher salary, better quality of life and better professional opportunities. English language skills significantly increased the potential risk of working abroad by four times. Other significant factors were age less than 30 years, graduation since 1990, urban residence, and friends/family abroad. Even though the study did not find evidence of large-scale migratory flows, it found a significant percentage of Lithuanian pharmacists who intended to migrate. The potential effects of migration ought to be tackled systematically and in a coordinated way, because emigration affects the health system and health workers remaining in the country. In order to observe future trends, the survey should be repeated every two or three years.

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