WHO asks Britain to stop poaching foreign doctors

[oblivious]

By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Published: 07 April 2006

Britain has been warned by the World Health Organisation to stop poaching foreign doctors and nurses from the world's poorest nations to shore up the NHS. The haemorrhage of health workers from the developing world is a key factor behind a global health workforce crisis which is costing millions of lives, the UN agency said.

At least 1.3bn people have no access even to the most basic health care, often because there is no health worker. The burden is greatest in countries hardest hit by poverty and disease.

The WHO yesterday named 57 countries that are short of 2.4 million doctors, nurses and midwives in its annual World Health Report. Essential life-saving measures such as childhood vaccination, pregnancy and maternity care and treatment for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis are threatened by the shortag

...In Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, a quarter or more of all physicians had been imported from other countries. On average one in four doctors and one nurse in 20 trained in Africa is working in OECD countries.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article356255.ece