The World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed that 55 countries worldwide are grappling with severe shortages of healthcare workers due to their pursuit of better pay and improved living conditions in wealthier countries, who have ramped up their efforts to recruit them amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the WHO, African nations have been the hardest hit, with 37 countries on the continent facing a shortage of healthcare workers. The WHO has expressed concern that the shortage of health workers is putting at risk their ability to achieve universal healthcare by 2030, a crucial pledge under the Sustainable Development Goals.
The actions of wealthy countries, particularly those in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, have come under scrutiny in the WHO alert. In a statement released on Tuesday, Dr Jim Campbell, the Director responsible for health worker policy at the WHO, highlighted the Gulf States and some high-income countries within the OECD as having accelerated their recruitment and employment of healthcare workers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To help countries protect their vulnerable healthcare systems, the WHO has released an updated health workforce support and safeguards list, which identifies nations with low numbers of qualified healthcare staff. The list recommends priority support for health workforce development and health system strengthening, along with additional safeguards that limit active international recruitment.
In line with the SDGs, the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, has called on all countries to respect the provisions in the WHO health workforce support and safeguards list. “Health workers are the backbone of every health system, and yet 55 countries with some of the world’s most fragile health systems, do not have enough and many are losing their health workers to international migration,” he added.
While many countries do respect existing WHO guidelines on the recruitment of healthcare workers, the WHO warns that there is a private recruitment market that does not follow these provisions. WHO has urged these recruiters to comply with the global standards for their practice and behaviour.
The WHO health workforce support and safeguard list does not prohibit international recruitment, but it recommends that governments involved in such programmes be informed about the impact on the health system in countries where they source qualified health professionals. Mechanisms also exist for governments or individuals to notify the WHO if they are concerned about the behaviour of recruiters.
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