How can New Zealand attract the finite healthcare workforce resource?
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, countries at all stages of development experienced healthcare worker shortages. This medical recruitment and retention crisis prompted the creation of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health, which led to a 29% growth in the health workforce to 65 million by 2020. Steps are being taken in the right direction to address healthcare worker shortages.
Health systems can only function with health workers; improving health service coverage and realising the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is dependent on their availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality. Mere availability of health workers is not sufficient: only when they are equitably distributed and accessible by the population, when they possess the required competency, and are motivated and empowered to deliver quality care that is appropriate and acceptable to the sociocultural expectations of the population, and when they are adequately supported by the health system, can theoretical coverage translate into effective service coverage.
The foundation for a strong and effective health workforce, able to respond to the 21st century priorities. The health workforce also has an important role in contributing to the preparedness and response to emergencies and disasters, in particular through participation in national health emergency management systems, local leadership and the provision of health services.
Loss of talent is not unique to New Zealand. In the UK, for example, the country is facing an unprecedented brain drain of its best and brightest, with a 2022 survey by recruitment firm Total-Jobs suggesting 4.5 million people were considering emigrating from Britain, mainly because of the rising cost of living and a decline in the economy. There are fears of a brain drain in Australia too. Australia is spending up large on its healthcare system as it too is stretched and understaffed. A recent study showed one-fifth of Australia’s registered nurses say they intend to leave their current role in 2023, some for overseas positions and some leaving the nursing profession altogether. In response, Australian states last year announced campaigns to attract healthcare workers from overseas. The Queensland government targeted foreign doctors and nurses for recruitment, while Western Australia’s relocation incentive, included a reimbursement of $5,000 for flights to Perth.
If we can make our working conditions unbeatable, then even without paying on-par with bigger markets, we will attract our own share of precious future taxpayers. Health workers have been migrating internationally for decades. But as countries focus recruitment efforts internationally to ease domestic pressures, experts warn that it may worsen existing inequalities amid a global shortage of healthcare workers.