International migration of health workers

Improving international co-operation to address the global health workforce crisis

• OECD

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22 March 2010This policy brief provides new insights on recent migration trends for doctors and nurses up to 2008, and discusses the main causes and consequences for destination and origin countries, and presents possible policy responses.

In 2006, the World Health Organization estimated that there was a shortage of more than 4.3 million health personnel across the world. Low-income countries were particularly hard-hit by shortages: of the 57 countries with a critical shortage, 36 were sub-Saharan African countries.

Because the international migration of doctors and nurses has become increasingly visible, it is often seen as the main culprit behind these shortages. This has led to a polarized debate between the negative aspects of migration and the individual rights of health personnel to leave any country including their own. In this context, policy discussions often occurred around the issue of compensation. The work jointly carried out by the OECD and WHO provides a detailed picture of the magnitude of health workers migration and shows that the global health workforce crisis goes beyond the migration issue.

The global economic crisis and events such as the A/H1N1 pandemic have recently increased the pressure on health systems and health personnel, and as a result are adding to the urgency to address the global health personnel crisis.

To tackle the health workforce crisis, there is a need to increase training capacity, to improve retention and management of the health workforce, to address concerns related to international migration of health workers and better monitor these flows. Recent G8 summits in Toyako (Japan, 2008) and L’Aquila (Italy, 2009) reiterated the need for progress in these areas and encouraged WHO to develop a code of practice on the international recruitment of health personnel.

Image: bbcworldservice / flickr