Human Resources for Health
Joia S. Mukherjee
Abstract
Abstract People are the cornerstone of a health system. For a health system to function well, adequate numbers of well-trained and well-compensated health professionals are essential to effectively deliver care to those who need it. In impoverished countries, decades of under-resourced training programs, low wages, and poor working conditions have led to shortages of health workers. While the WHO recommends 4.45 doctors, nurses and midwives per 1000 people, many impoverished countries have only a few percent of that number. In the absence of trained personnel, programs have relied on volunteers or lower cadres of staff. Yet, the overall lack of well-trained and compensated staff has led to underperformance of the health system the very areas where the burden of disease is the highest. In this chapter, the causes of the human resources crisis are explained and programs that are working to increase the numbers of health professionals are presented.