Deborah Onyofufeke, Abuja
World Health Organization, WHO, Nigeria, and 54 other countries face serious health workers shortage as health workers in these countries, continue to seek better-paid opportunities in wealthier nations, says WHO.

WHO also revealed that African nations have been the worst hit amongst these countries by the phenomenon, with 37 countries in the continent facing health worker shortages.

WHO listed Nigeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Gabon were mentioned as part of the countries facing acute shortage of health workers.

Others were Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Haiti was the only country mentioned under the region of the America category, while the Eastern Mediterranean Region category comprised Afghanistan, Djibouti, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

Under the South-East Asia region category were Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste.

Among the countries listed in the Western Pacific Region category were Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Micronesia (Federated States of), Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Samoa, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

WHO noted that the countries mentioned, face the most pressing health workforce challenges related to universal health coverage because their health workers, continue to seek better-paid opportunities in wealthier nations that have stepped up efforts to recruit them amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

It said, “Health workers shortage have threatened their chances of achieving universal health care by 2030 – a key Sustainable Development Goals pledge.’’

“The actions of wealthy countries that belong to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development come under scrutiny in the WHO alert, among other regions.

“In particular, these countries have: 1) a density of doctors, nurses, and midwives below the global median (i.e., 49 per 10 000 population); and 2) a universal health coverage service coverage index below a certain threshold,” WHO said.

“To account for the disruptions caused to health services by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the effects on health worker mobility and migration, the threshold for the universal health coverage service index for the WHO health workforce support and safeguards list 2023 has been increased from 50 (the value used for the 2020 list) to 55.”

“Within Africa, it’s a very vibrant economy that is creating new opportunities. The Gulf States have traditionally been reliant on international personnel and then some of the OECD high-income countries have really accelerated their recruitment and employment to respond to the pandemic and respond to the loss of lives, the infections, the absences of workers during the pandemic,” the Director responsible for health worker policy at WHO, Dr. Jim Campbell, said in a statement on Tuesday.

To this effect, to help countries protect their vulnerable healthcare systems, WHO has issued an updated health workforce support and safeguards list, which stated that these countries require priority support for health workforce development and health system strengthening, along with additional safeguards that limit active international recruitment.

WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, called on all countries to respect the provisions in the WHO health workforce support and safeguards list.

Health workers are the backbone of every health system, and yet 55 countries with some of the world’s most fragile health systems, do not have enough, and many are losing their health workers to international migration,” he added.

Although many countries do respect existing WHO guidelines on the recruitment of health care workers, the principle is not accepted wholesale, WHO warned.

“What we are seeing is that the majority of countries are respecting those provisions by not actively recruiting from these (vulnerable) countries.

“But there is also a private recruitment market that does exist and we’re looking to them to also reach some of the global standards that are anticipated in terms of their practice and behaviour,” Campbell said.

Mechanisms also exist for governments or other individuals to notify WHO if they are “worried” about the behavior of recruiters, the WHO official said.