WHO warns of 6.1 million health workers’ shortage as nurses scarcity plagues SA
ON Mother’s Day yesterday, International Nurses Day was celebrated in memory of Florence Nightingale.
During a ceremony to commemorate nurses in the Western Cape, at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), a moment of silence was observed on Thursday to remember nursing staff who lost their lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Professor Jennifer Chipps from the UWC’s School of Nursing highlighted the future of nursing and the shortage of nurses. A year ago, the National Department of Health said nurses accounted for 56% of the health workforce, and in 2020, the Hospital Association of South Africa said the country had a shortage of between 26 000 and 62 000 professional nurses, and that by 2030 the demand for nurses in South Africa would increase by up to 340 000.
She said South Africa had a critical shortage of nurses and was facing an ageing nursing population.
“We don’t all need to be ‘heroic leaders’, but we must be the best ethical nurses we can be, continue to act as informal leaders, aim to lead others through servant and relational leadership and be the leaders in our profession who guide the health sector through the current changes we face.”
Nomafrench Mbombo, the Western Cape Health and Wellness MEC, was also a keynote speaker and addressed the impact of the Gaza and Syria wars on health systems.
“The wars that we see in Gaza and Syria have an impact on our health system. The availability and cost of medical supplies and escalating food prices affect our patient care in a negative way,” she said.
In an in-depth review of the past decade, a WHO report this week gave a detailed analysis of the dramatic changes and challenges in the public health system and looked at future projections and economic stability.
The WHO said that the health workforce rose from 1.6 million in 2013 to 5.1 million in 2022, but with the population growth, we face a shortage of 6.1 million health workers by 2030.
The report addressed critical issues, such as the migration of health workers, funding deficits, and the varied success of health workforce strategies across different regions.
“The African region will face a shortage of 6.1 million health workers by 2030 if we want to tackle the disease burden with effective service interventions across health promotion, disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliation.
“Of the anticipated shortage, about 5.3 million of these health workers will be doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists and dentists,” said the WHO.Expand the training of health workers by 8-12% annually to meet the needs of our country’s population, it said.
They added the capacity to train health workers has increased by 70% from 150 000 graduates in 2018 to more than 255 000 in 2022 as countries have invested in training health workers from more than 4 000 training institutions and programmes. “The private sector contributes at least 40% of this capacity.”
Africa’s training output for doctors rose from 6 000 a year in 2005 to almost 39 850, and more than 151 300 nurses and midwives are being produced per year compared to 26000 in 2005,” WHO said in its report.