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Written question

Answer

Health care professionals are clearly a crucial element of any health system and the UK Government are concerned about the severe shortages of health workers in some developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Migration of health workers to the UK and elsewhere can contribute to these shortages, which is why the UK has a Code of Practice for International Recruitment of Healthcare Professionals available at http://www.dh.gov.uk. The Code of Practice prevents the NHS from actively recruiting health care professionals from low and middle-income countries unless there is a Government-to-Government agreement in place. International migration is, however, just one of the factors contributing to the shortages of health workers in many developing countries. Other factors include 5 Jul 2005 : Column 266W lack of training capacity, workers leaving the health sector due to poor pay and working conditions, difficulties in deploying staff to rural areas, and the effects of HIV and AIDS. DFID believes that addressing these shortages requires the development and implementation of comprehensive country-led plans, which increase the numbers of health workers trained, but also include measures to improve pay and incentives, working conditions, distribution, effective planning and management, and improving the performance of existing workers. An example of where DFID is supporting such a plan is Malawi where we are working with the Government to implement an emergency human resource programme, which aims to almost double the number of health workers in Malawi over the next six years.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

436 c265-6W; 9822

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Developing countries Health services Migrant workers