The World faces 4.3 M shortage in Health Workers – UNICEF Report

Jul 25, 2009 News

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Report for 2009 has noted from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the world is facing a shortage of 4.3 million health workers, with every region except Europe showing a shortfall.
A 2006 World Health Organisation (WHO) survey revealed that while Africa accounts for more than 24 per cent of the global disease burden, it has only three per cent of the world’s health workers and spends less than 1 per cent of total global resources dedicated to health, even after loans and grants from abroad are taken into account.
In contrast, the Americas, which covers Latin America and the Caribbean along with North America, has only 10 per cent of the global burden of disease but commands 37 per cent of the world’s health workers and spends more than 50 per cent of global resources allocated to health.
The report stated that more specifically, there are not enough skilled health workers –doctors, nurses or midwives to attend to all the world’s births.
It was noted that a study by the Joint Learning Initiative found that countries needed an average of 2.28 health-care professionals per 1,000 people to achieve the minimum desired level of coverage for skilled attendance at delivery.
Of the 57 countries that fall below this threshold, 36 are in sub-Saharan Africa. Although the countries with the largest shortages of health workers in absolute terms are found in Asia – notably in Bangladesh, India and Indonesia, the largest relative need is in sub-Saharan Africa.
The report stated that this region would need to increase its number of health workers by 140 per cent to reach the requisite density.
An earlier WHO estimate calculated that 334,000 skilled birth attendants would need to be trained worldwide in the coming years to cover 73 per cent of births.
It was explained in the document that shortages of skilled health workers arise from many factors, including underinvestment in training and recruitment, weak incentives for health-care workers, low remuneration and high levels of stress.
“Heavy migration of skilled health workers from developing countries to industrialised nations spurred by the burgeoning demand for health workers in industrialised countries with ageing populations has also taken its toll.
“A survey of 10 African countries showed that the number of locally trained doctors now working in eight Organisations for Economic Co-operation and Development countries was equivalent to 23 per cent of the doctors still domestically employed in those countries.”
It was noted that health workers, who usually qualify in urban settings, are often reluctant to base themselves in a rural location on the grounds that it involves greater hardship, more basic living conditions and less access to urban amenities and entertainment.
According to the report, one survey in South and South-east Asia found that rural postings were shunned because of lower income, low prestige and social isolation.
The UNICEF report stated that AIDS is also having a deleterious effect on health systems in the countries where it has reached epidemic proportions.
“Health workers in these countries face the same risks in their private lives as other people in high-prevalence countries, but are also exposed to significant risks at work in circumstances where protective equipment and practices are often deficient.”

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The World faces 4.3 M shortage in Health Workers – UNICEF Report

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