Medical brain drain from poorer to richer nations must be stopped

Jul 4 2005

A doctor working in Ghana says that even though the migration of health workers from poorer to richer nations is unlikely to stop, policies must be put in place to minimise the damage it causes.

Omar Ahmad from the University of Ghana, says that many developed countries have insufficient health workers to meet their own needs, yet recruiting continues from developing countries which is damaging to their health services.

He says in Ghana over 60% of all doctors trained locally in the 1980s had emigrated by 1999. In 2000 alone, Ghana lost nearly 3,000 nurses compared with 387 in 1999.

He says however that there is growing concern about the harmful effects of indiscriminate poaching, but the right of the individual health worker to emigrate has to be balanced against the consequences of such migration on the welfare of the larger society.

Ahmad says a code of ethical recruitment by the UK Department of Health and Commonwealth countries needs to be adopted, and so far attempts at minimising the damage has been feeble.

He says the problem is global and therefore requires a global solution, and with better data on the movement of health workers, it might be possible to develop an international framework for the management of skills migration.

James Johnson, Chairman of the British Medical Association, also says that the rich countries of the North must stop looting doctors and nurses from developing countries,and self sufficiency is the most important element.

He says the US already employs half of all English speaking doctors in the world, and wants still more, and unless it can be persuaded to think and act differently, it will soak up skilled workforce from every available source, including the UK.

He concludes that the African initiative of the G8 countries will fail spectacularly if the richest nations of the world do not allow the poorest to maintain the bare essentials of healthcare provision.

Both reports are published in the British Medical Journal.