Global health workers shortage threatens health coverage

More than 43 million additional health workers are needed to meet targets for universal health coverage around the world, according to researchers at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine.

The largest gaps in staffing were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.

The researchers looked at shortages in four categories: physicians, nurses and midwives, dental personnel, and pharmaceutical personnel.

In 2019, they estimated that more than 130 countries had shortages of physicians and more than 150 had shortages of nurse and midwives.

When comparing current levels of health care workers to the minimum levels needed to meet a target score of 80 on the universal health coverage (UHC) effective service coverage index, researchers estimated a shortage of more than 43 million health care workers, including 30.6 million nurses and midwives and 6.4 million physicians.

‘These are the most comprehensive estimates to date of the global health care workforce,’ said senior Author Dr. Rafael Lozano, Director of Health Systems at IHME. ‘Health care workers are essential to the functioning of health systems, and it’s very important to have these data available so that countries can make informed decisions and plan for the future.’

The study revealed more than a 10-fold difference in the density of health care workers across and within regions in 2019. Densities ranged from 2.9 physicians for every 10,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa to 38.3 per 10,000 in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia.

‘We found that the density of health care workers is strongly related to a nation’s level of social and economic development,’ added lead author Dr. Annie Haakenstad, Assistant Professor of Health Metrics Sciences at IHME. ‘There are different strategies and policy approaches that may help with addressing worker shortages, and these should be tailored to the individual situation in each country. We hope that these estimates can be used to help prioritize policy interventions and inform future planning.’

The new study, published in The Lancet, is available in full here.      

Photo by Hush Naidoo Jade Photography