The shortage of healthcare workers is a global crisis, but developed countries can afford to throw money at the problem, attracting nurses and doctors from developing countries with vastly better salaries and working conditions. In Malawi, the fourth poorest country in the world, where UNAIDS has put HIV prevalence at 14 percent, the health worker shortage is so acute that the ministry of health and international donors are now treating it as an emergency.
Human Resources
Malawi: Health worker shortage a challenge to AIDS treatment
IRIN News, 17 November 2006
Public sector nurses in Swaziland: Can the downturn be reversed?
Kober K, Van Damme W: Human Resources for Health 4:13 , 2006
This paper describes the current situation of the health workforce in the public sector in Swaziland. Swaziland, like most other countries in southern Africa, is facing a human resources crisis that is exacerbated by the impact of HIV and AIDS. The paper identifies the major factors that contribute to losses in the health workforce as emigration and attrition due to AIDS. It describes the initiatives that the government has undertaken to tackle the crisis. These include retention strategies such as increased salaries to retain staff, and scaling up anti retroviral therapy (ART) for health-care workers to reduce attrition.
The cost of health professionals' brain drain in Kenya
Kirigia JM, Gbary AR, Muthuri LK, et al: BioMed Central, 17 July 2006
Past attempts to estimate the cost of migration were limited to education costs only and did not include the lost returns from investment. The objectives of this study were: (i) to estimate the financial cost of emigration of Kenyan doctors to the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA); (ii) to estimate the financial cost of emigration of nurses to seven OECD countries; and (iii) to describe other losses from brain drain. Results showed that Developed countries continue to deprive Kenya of millions of dollars worth of investments embodied in her human resources for health. If the current trend of poaching of scarce human resources for health (and other professionals) from Kenya is not curtailed, the chances of achieving the Millennium Development Goals would remain bleak.
Africa Health Workforce Observatory Meeting
Commonwealth Regional Health Community for East, Central and Southern Africa
Absence of current reliable human resources data for health workers at the country level limits the ability to monitor and improve HRH leadership, management, policy and planning. Responding to this health workforce crisis, about 90 participants from fifteen African countries and international organizations have joined forces for the African Health Workforce Observatory. The East, Central and Southern African Health Community (ECSA), the World Health Organisation, World Bank and USAID/Capacity Project have partnered to accelerate the establishment of Africa Health Workforce Observatory. This three-day meeting focussed on developing mechanisms to create up-to-date reliable information that enables evidence-based decision making for human resources for health.
Human resources for health situation analysis in seven ECSA countries
East Central and Southern African Health Community, 27 July 2006
Human resources for health (HRH) is a critical component of health systems. Many governments of our member states have expressed the need to determine the status of HRH in relation to supply, utilisation and management systems. This study focused on establishing the situation of HRH in the region. The findings of this study will assist not only in identifying further areas of research in relation to HRH but aid in developing both regional and national level strategies on training, deployment and retention.
African brain drain
Hooper-Box C: Kubatana, 1 September 2006
Southern Africa’s public health services are in a state of emergency. Bad pay and working conditions, plus the impact of HIV/Aids, are bleeding the system of its most valuable resource: people. With the cost of training a general practice doctor estimated to be $60 000, and that of training a medical auxiliary at $12 000, the African Union estimates that low income countries subsidise high income countries to the tune of $500-million a year through the loss of their health workers. The article touches on the experience in several eastern and southern African countries.
Health worker motivation in Africa: The role of non-financial incentives and human resource management tools
Mathauer I, Imhoff I: Human Resources for Health 4:24, 29 August 2006
There is a serious human resource crisis in the health sector in developing countries, particularly in Africa. One of the challenges is the low motivation of health workers. Experience and the evidence suggest that any comprehensive strategy to maximize health worker motivation in a developing country context has to involve a mix of financial and non financial incentives. This study assesses the role of non-financial incentives for motivation in Benin and Kenya.
Health worker shortage is major obstacle to universal treatment
Oxfam press release, 15 August 2006
Representatives of Oxfam International, Physicians for Human Rights and Health GAP today called the critical shortage of health workers in developing countries "a major challenge to meeting the promise of universal access to treatment." They demanded massive new investment from government to train and retain health workers. "Campaigns to fulfill the right to health have brought anti-retroviral medicines to hundreds of thousands of people. But without the health workers and health systems to administer these medicines, that right remains unrealized for millions more," said Leonard Rubenstein, JD, Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights.
Inernational mobility of health professionals
Bach S: United Nations University Wider Research Paper 82, August 2006
The consequences of health professional mobility have become a prominent public policy concern. This paper considers trends in mobility amongst doctors and nurses and the consequences for health systems. Policy responses are shifting from a reactive agenda that focuses on stemming migration towards a more active agenda of managed migration that benefits source and destination countries. Improved working conditions and effective human resource practice are required to encourage retention of health professionals in both source and destination countries.
Managing International Mobility of Health Professionals
Bonnefin M: Geneva Health Forum, 1 September 2006
The global phenomena of massive migration of health professionals and the advent of e-Health solutions are evidence of the fact that significant trends in health are no longer regional. Worldwide, doctors, nurses and ancillary staff are increasingly seeking better prospects for themselves, not only in the northern economic powerhouses but also in developing countries. However, a severe lack of knowledge-sharing mechanisms and appropriate funding has meant that patients and health professionals in poor countries are still denied the opportunity to benefit from pioneering e-Health programmes now being developed in countries such as the UK and Canada.