PHM-Exch> Fwd: Bulletin #48: How to stop the brain drain?

Fri Apr 21 14:48:56 PDT 2023

This fortnight   Despite the critical role that health workers play in
keeping communities healthy, the world is still grappling with a severe
shortage of trained medical personnel. This problem has been particularly
acute in the Global South, where underfunded healthcare systems and
aggressive recruitment drives from high-income countries have contributed
to a chronic shortage of health workers. In this issue, we take a closer
look at the latest update of the World Health Organization’s (WHO)

Bulletin #48: How to stop the brain drain?
<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/12e1bbe7?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>
By People's Health Dispatch • 21 Apr 2023 View in browser
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This fortnight

Despite the critical role that health workers play in keeping communities
healthy, the world is still grappling with a severe shortage of trained
medical personnel. This problem has been particularly acute in the Global
South, where underfunded healthcare systems and aggressive recruitment
drives from high-income countries have contributed to a chronic shortage of
health workers.

In this issue, we take a closer look at the latest update of the World
Health Organization’s (WHO) Support and Safeguards List and the ripple
effects it has caused in countries like Nigeria
<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/c4a40628?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>and
the United Kingdom. Low-income countries are resorting to emigration bans
to address the health worker shortage, but this will not be enough.

In order to provide concrete answers to the ongoing crisis, countries in
the Global South need to be given enough resources and space to strengthen
their public health systems. This is the case in Zimbabwe
<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/a596bfc2?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>,
where health workers are facing an uphill battle to provide quality care in
a health system that is underfunded and understaffed. Zimbabwe's health
workers are caught between an ailing public sector, under pressure from
sanctions, and migration limitations.

Health workers in East Europe are also recruited by core EU countries,
leaving gaps in hospitals and primary health care institutions at home. The
European office of WHO recently issued guidance
<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/1bcb29ed?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>on
addressing the health workers’ shortage, but the document does not take
into consideration the specific position of East European countries.

While their nurses and doctors are being poached by Western neighbors, East
European countries still have a different legacy to rely upon. We met
with Matthew
Read
<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/cc5471c3?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>
from the International Research Centre DDR (IF DDR) to hear more about
socialist health systems in Europe and the lessons they might teach us
today.

In Latin America and India, we are witnessing attempts to make health care
more accessible. In Colombia
<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/d3f9f35c?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>,
the Petro-Márquez government is considering a major overhaul of the health
system, breaking with the previous neoliberal model. In India
<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/06c52e94?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>,
the Patent Office ruled against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson in
an attempt to evergreen tuberculosis drug bedaquiline. We bring more on
both cases in Spanish.
------------------------------
Featured articles

*Health worker shortage in Global South cannot be resolved by tepid
mechanisms and bans
<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/f552fc3c?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>*

Nigeria’s House of Representatives is considering a bill which would block
young physicians from emigrating right after university. The proposal
points to the widespread problem of mass emigration of health workers from
the Global South

*Between an ailing public sector and migration curbs, Zimbabwe’s health
workers left with few options
<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/63b26eef?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>*

Zimbabwe has announced plans to criminalize the foreign recruitment of its
health workers. Over 4,000 health workers have left the country since 2021,
as the public health system continues to face issues of low pay and lack of
infrastructure

*A brutal system replaced socialist health care in Europe
<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/705de883?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>*

Matthew Read, researcher at the IF DDR, talks to the People’s Health
Dispatch about similarities between East Germany’s and Yugoslavia’s
socialist health systems and the lessons to be learned from these systems

*WHO Europe’s health workforce guidance doesn’t protect East European
health systems
<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/2b751793?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>*

A recent health workforce declaration by WHO’s European region misses on
the opportunity to protect East European health systems from health
workers’ brain drain
------------------------------
Data speaks
------------------------------
Español

*El sistema de salud en Colombia podría ver por fin cambios que pongan a
las personas por delante del lucro
<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/7bc0a17f?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>*

Un intenso debate rodea la propuesta de reforma a la salud presentada por
el gobierno de Gustavo Petro y Francia Márquez, mientras el negocio de los
seguros privados de salud y los conservadores intentan bloquearla.

*Sí, podemos impedir que las patentes obstaculicen el tratamiento de la
tuberculosis
<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/b8b8322c?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>*

Un día antes del Día Mundial de la Tuberculosis, la Oficina de Patentes de
la India rechazó la solicitud del gigante farmacéutico Jannsen de prorrogar
la patente del medicamento bedaquilina.
------------------------------
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<https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/r/0ae94945?m=7fbe802b-41b0-46c0-a257-5e71e0284f0a>
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*People’s Health Dispatch is an initiative of Peoples Dispatch and the
People's Health Movement*
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