UK crippling Africa's healthcare

The UK is crippling sub-Saharan Africa's healthcare system by poaching its staff, UK doctors have warned.

With the UK taking over the chair of the G8 in July, there is an ideal opportunity to stop the brain drain from poor to rich countries, they said.

The UK should encourage more home-grown doctors and limit the time period that overseas recruits can train and work in the country, they told the Lancet.

Financially compensating nations for lost staff will not work, they warned.

Brain drain

Nor will strategies that split the training of healthcare staff between developed and developing countries, according to Dr John Eastwood and his colleagues from St George's Medical School in London.

Industrialised countries like America and Britain must recognise that they have some responsibility for this crisis Dr Edwin Borman of the British Medical Association

He said: "One basic measure would be an agreement in consultation, with the World Health Organization, to establish a basis in developed countries for minimum annual numbers of health professionals in training.

"This would help to reduce developed country reliance on the investment in training made by developing countries."

Ethics

The UK does have an ethical code which means it will not actively recruit from certain developing countries, which includes sub-Saharan Africa.

However, healthcare professionals from these countries are free to apply for jobs in the UK.

In 2003, 5,880 UK work permits were approved for health and medical personnel from South Africa, 2,825 from Zimbabwe, 1,510 from Nigeria and 850 from Ghana.

Nearly a third of the doctors practising in the UK were trained overseas.

In comparison, only 5% of doctors in Germany and France are not home grown.

Dr Edwin Borman, chairman of the BMA's International Committee, said: "Shortages of doctors and nurses are having a devastating effect in the developing world.

"Sub-Saharan Africa alone needs around a million more healthcare workers, and unless the situation improves drastically rates of HIV will spiral, disability from childhood disease will rise, and thousands more lives will be lost.

"Industrialised countries like America and Britain must recognise that they have some responsibility for this crisis.

"At least the UK now has an ethical recruitment code, and we hope other countries will follow suit - but we also need to remove the financial barriers we have imposed on developing countries which are preventing them from investing in basic healthcare and training."

Progress

A spokeswoman from the Department of Health said: "The NHS leads the way in the ethical recruitment of healthcare professionals.

"The Department of Health has brokered a groundbreaking voluntary ethical recruitment agreement with the major players in independent sector healthcare.

"However, if healthcare professionals are determined to come here to work we cannot legally deny them that opportunity."

She said the government had provided £560 million over the last five years to support health and health systems development in Africa, including the training of nurses and doctors.

She said they were also putting huge investment into the expansion of UK medical schools.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4582283.stm

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