PHM-Exch> MMI statement: International recruitment of health personnel

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: MMI Thomas Schwarz schwarz at medicusmundi.org


  Statement by the Medicus Mundi International Network:
International recruitment of health personnel
............................................................

Addressing the participants at the 59th session of the WHO Regional
Committee for Europe, and referring to the draft "WHO code of practice on
the international recruitment of health personnel", a representative of the
Medicus Mundi International Network (MMI) welcomed the joint effort by WHO
Member States, WHO and civil society to address and regulate international
migration of health workers.

MMI advocates for of a strong Global Code of Practice that can guide towards
reduced international recruitment and eventually generate a globally
balanced health workforce. Some key elements of the MMI statement:

·         "While we respect the efforts on protecting the rights of
individual health workers to migrate, one of the main objectives of the code
must be to reduce negative effects of international migration of health
workers for source countries and their population. Ethical recruitment of
health workers must contribute to this objective and must not become a
justification or promotion for continued recruitment from countries with a
critical shortage of health personnel. The Code should instead include a
provision that recommends Member States to *refrain from international
recruitment in countries with a shortage*."

·         "The text of the Code should explicitly announce the obligations
of receiving countries towards the ‘source’ countries of health workforce
migration based on the obligation laid out in the Universal Right to Health.
There must be a stronger emphasis that any form of just or commensurate
compensation must be directed to create and maintain greener pastures for
health workers in developing countries to jointly *eliminate the push
factors of migration *in order to* strengthen the overall health system*."

·         "The Code should encourage WHO Member States to *ensure a sound
and effective national health workforce planning* and corresponding
investments in training. This will preclude their need to recruit health
personnel from abroad."

·         "We urge WHO Member States to fine tune the global code of
practice to their respective national context. As part of a sound national
workforce policy that aims for self-sufficiency we recommend that the text
of the Code urges Member States to also *develop their own* *national code
of practice to regulate international recruitment*."

Read the full statement on the MMI ePlatform: http://bit.ly/4x4Tyw (PDF
file).
For more information, please get in touch with the MMI secretariat



The statement was drafted by the Medicus Mundi International Network in
cooperation with Wemos Foundation <http://www.wemos.nl/>, the Netherlands.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20090917/52176848/attachment-0001.html>