Human resources for health
The "skills drain" of health professionals from the developing world: a framework for policy formulation
Current policies underestimate the pressures and mis-identify the reasons for rising migration from low income countries
Authors:
L. Henry; M. Mackintosh; K. Mensah
Publisher:
Medact, 2005
This paper from MedAct examines policy towards health professionals’ migration from perspective of economics and governance. The authors argue that current policy responses to migration of health professionals from low income developing countries underestimate the pressures for migration, and mis-identify the reasons for rising migration. They also argue that policy overestimates the impact of recruitment policies on migration flows and ignores unintended side effects of this. The paper uses Ghana-United Kingdom (UK) migration as a case study to highlight the worst problems and contradictions in current policy debate
The authors recommend that migration policy should not be the limitation of mobility but equity in health care and that health service financing and governance needs to improve in countries that are losing staff. They also argue not for a global solution to health professional migration but for restitution in the context of existing aid funding processes for health service strengthening in African countries. The authors outline that there needs to be a shift in policy from employment codes focusing on international recruitment to well managed financial compensation that is based in collaboration between the advantaged and the disadvantaged health services. [adapted from authors]
