Resources > Statistics > 2006
Statistics 2006
Working Together for Health
In 2006, the World Health Report focuses on the crisis in human resources in healthcare. Despite the fact that there are nearly 60 million full-time paid healthcare workers around the world, there is a chronic shortage of well-trained healthcare professionals working in the areas of greatest need.
In the UK we have seen a substantial increase in the number of healthcare workers in the NHS over the past five years with many coming from Africa, India and Eastern Europe. However, in the past six months, newspaper headlines have trumpeted the lay-offs and redundancies being made across the country. The most likely casualties will be the overseas healthcare professionals who will not be sure what to do and where to go next.
Please pray for Christian healthcare workers of whatever nationality as they seek to use their skills and knowledge in the place where God has called them to serve Him.
Here are some statistics to help inform your prayers about the important role of healthcare workers in meeting health needs:
The WHO estimates that there are currently 57 countries with critical shortages of doctors, nurses and midwives equivalent to over 2.4 million healthcare workers.
The greatest shortages are in Sub-Saharan Africa where the average number of healthcare professionals per 1,000 population is 2.3 compared with over 20 in the UK and 25 in the Americas. This seriously affects the ability of a country to ensure safe births with skilled birth attendants present or over 80% coverage for vaccination and immunisation programmes.
The number of doctors working in the UK who were trained abroad is 70,000 which is 33% of the total number of doctors.
The number of nurses working in the UK who were trained abroad is 65,000.
Over 12,000 South African doctors are now working in 8 OECD countries which is nearly 40% of the total number of doctors in South Africa.
Over 13,000 South African nurses are now working in 7 OECD countries.
Other African countries whose healthcare workers are now employed in OECD countries, in order of greatest numbers, are: Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Zambia, Kenya, Mauritius, Ethiopia, Botswana, Malawi, Swaziland.
Health workers’ reasons for migrating from four African countries, in order of importance, were: more money, safer environment, better living conditions, poor facilities at home, heavy workload, no future.
“Losing its workforce can bring a fragile health system close to collapse.” The World Health Report 2006
“In many countries, health workers face the risk of violence, accidents, illness and death.” Ibid
Sub-Saharan Africa represents 10% of the world’s population and 60% of the world’s AIDS population.
In Nigeria there are nearly 2 million AIDS orphans with another 10 million across the continent.
In South Africa, 4,000 teachers will die of AIDS this year.
9,000 people are infected across Africa every day. Fewer than 20% can hope to receive life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs.
Each day, 6,500 adults and children die from AIDS.
More than 15 million people have died of AIDS in Africa, more than the combined death toll from the Rwandan genocide, the Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge and the war in Iraq.
Expenditure on healthcare in the UK is close to £100 billion.
