Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla has raised a red flag over Africa’s health human resource needs, saying that developing effective policies to tackle these has historically been complex but globalisation trends, such as the outsourcing of medical education and increased physician migration, have introduced new challenges for policymakers, educators, and regulators.
“As we were all grappling with emergency measures to respond to the pandemic, the chronic problems of serious shortages of skilled health workforce, especially in our African continent became pronounced," he said in his opening speech at the 24th Association of Medical Councils of Africa International conference on Monday this week (3 October).
“These shortages continue to undermine access to and provision of health services, particularly in the primary care settings. This is the most critical challenge to achieving universal health coverage. Without the availability of a competent and appropriately skilled health workforce, adequate numbers and proportionately distributed, many citizens of our continent struggle to get access the services they need. Most of our countries’ health budgets are getting constrained due to subdued economic growth or even decline in some instances. This certainly puts a lot of pressure on the whole health ecosystem.”
He said that this necessitated the need to reconsider the international community’s approach to solving the workforce crisis, “focusing in particular on the WHO Code of Practice, established in 2010”.
The Code seeks to strengthen the understanding and ethical management of international health personnel recruitment through improved data, information, and international cooperation.
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