COVID-19 has resulted in reduced health workforce availability to respond to the pandemic, maintain essential health services and deliver the vaccinations needed to end the pandemic. Amongst infections and deaths; stress, burnout and mental health issues; labour actions and strikes; and departures from service.
During the Seventy-fifth World Health Assembly, Member States raised grave concerns about the critical and increasing health workforce gap related to migration. The fourth round of reporting on the WHO Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel indicates that approximately 15% of health and care workers globally are working outside their country of birth or first professional qualification.
Already a concern when the Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List was published in January 2020, many countries are observing more acute shortages due to health workers being recruited to meet increased COVID-19 driven health service demands in other countries.
The WHO Expert Advisory Group convened in 2019 recommended that countries with the most pressing UHC-related health workforce needs be identified and that support and safeguards be targeted to these 47 countries. In response to Member State concerns and to the observed trends, noting the acute impact of the pandemic, the disruption to services and the vulnerabilities in countries, WHO will reconvene the Expert Advisory Group to review the countries on the Support and Safeguard List and present new information to the 152nd Executive Board. In the meantime, WHO encourages Member States and all relevant stakeholders to apply the precautionary principle when considering international recruitment of health workers.