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<\/p>\n2016 figures indicate that there are 2,289 Ghanaian health staff under the United Kingdom\u2019s (UK) National Health Service (NHS).<\/p>\n
Ghana contributes the 15th most human resources to the UK\u2019s NHS and other African countries feature prominently, with Nigeria contributing 5,040, South Africa contributing 1,626 and Egypt contributing 887.<\/p>\n
UK nationals contribute 971,878 persons to NHS staff, which range from cleaners to midwives to doctors.<\/p>\n
These figures will be unsurprising, considering the brain drain migration of health workers from low and middle-income to high-income countries.<\/p>\n
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The\u00a0World Health Organisation predicts<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0that the current global shortage of over-7 million health workers will increase to 12.9 million by 2035, with the poorest countries in the suffering the most from these shortages.<\/p>\n Sierra Leone, known to have one of the weakest health systems in the world, contributes 512 workers to the NHS. In 2010, the country had\u00a0136 doctors and 1,017 nurses<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, translating to one doctor for approximately every 45,000 people.<\/p>\n In the year 2014, when the UK’s NHS was voted the world’s strongest<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, it had 27 doctors and 103 nurses trained in Sierra Leone working for it.<\/p>\n Ghana’s deficit<\/strong><\/p>\n For the Ghanaian context, the usefulness of Ghanaians to the UK’s health sector is highlighted in the\u00a02006 estimation<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0indicating that the money saved by the UK through the recruitment of Ghanaian health workers may have exceeded that which it gave to Ghana in aid for health.<\/p>\n Ghana, on the other hand, continues to struggle with a deficit of critical health workers. An assessment by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association revealed that Ghana will need not less than 38,000<\/a><\/strong><\/span> Nurses and Midwives to fill the nurses-patient ratio.<\/p>\n WHO standards peg 40 nurses for every 10,000 patients as an acceptable ration, but Ghana’s is said to be 22 nurses for every 10,000 people.<\/p>\n Deficits abound for doctors too, with one doctor attending to about 10, 450 patients – a far cry from\u00a0the one doctor to 5000 patients\u00a0ratio per the recommendations of the Commonwealth and the 1 doctor to 1,320 patients per the recommendations from WHO.<\/p>\n The role migrants play in the UK health system had led some to advocate for financial compensation for source countries.<\/p>\n The NHS would be “in dire straits”<\/a><\/strong><\/span> without migrant workers, according to one of the UK’s senior economists.<\/p>\n![\"Ghana,](\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/maxresdefault-1-1024x576.jpg\")
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