The U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) warned late Monday of the serious implications for billions of people worldwide due to the shortage of healthcare workers, which is estimated to grow to 12.9 million by 2035 from the current deficit of 7.2 million. A report released by the agency at the Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, held in Recife, Brazil, attributes the projected increase to factors such as an ageing health workforce with staff retiring or leaving for better-paid jobs without being replaced, coupled with not enough young people entering the profession or being adequately trained. Another factor is the increasing demands being put on the healthcare sector from a growing world population with rising risks of non-communicable diseases like cancer, heart disease, and stroke, the WHO said in a statement. The report recommends several actions to address workforce shortages, including increased political and technical leadership in countries to support long-term human-resource development efforts, and maximizing the role of mid-level and community health workers to make frontline health services more accessible. "The foundations for a strong and effective health workforce for the future are being corroded in front of our ... eyes by failing to match today's supply of professionals with the demands of tomorrow's populations," said WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Systems Marie-Paule Kieny. "To prevent this happening, we must rethink and improve how we teach, train, deploy, and pay health workers so that their impact can widen," Doctor Kieny said.
