UK needs to end reliance on overseas doctors and nurses

May 11 2005

Health bodies in the UK are warning that there is a "major emergency" in the developing world due to the the increasing migration of healthcare workers.

The UK and US as well as other countries, have relied on overseas doctors and nurses to fill gaps in their own health services for decades, and now both the British Medical Association (BMA), and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and other international organisations have joined forces to warn that deaths in third world countries will increase if action is not taken now.

In a "statement of principles" the organisations say that sound though billion-dollar efforts to tackle global health problems like HIV and Aids are, they are were being severly undermined by the skills drain from developing countries.

They warn that lives are being lost because of severe shortages of health staff in areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa, and further losses of staff will cause the death toll to rise even further.

The organisations are calling for countries including the UK to end their reliance on overseas doctors and nurses.

But though the UK already has an ethical recruitment policy which bans the direct recruitment of staff from the poorest countries this does not stop workers coming to the UK independently and finding work in the NHS.

The BMA plans to call on governments to act on their recommendations at a conference of commonwealth health ministers in Geneva next week.

James Johnson, chairman of the BMA, says that the failure of countries like the US, and to a lesser extent the UK, to train enough doctors has had devastating consequences for the developing world.