Nigeria Among 55 Countries With ‘Most Pressing’ Shortage Of Health Workers – WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has included Nigeria and 54 other countries on its Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List 2023.

The global health body stated that the countries face the most pressing health workforce challenges related to universal health coverage.

“In particular, these countries have: 1) a density of doctors, nurses and midwives below the global median (i.e., 49 per 10 000 population); and 2) a universal health coverage service coverage index below a certain threshold,” WHO said in the report released March 8.

“To account for the disruptions caused to health services by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the effects on health worker mobility and migration, the threshold for the universal health coverage service coverage index for the WHO health workforce support and safeguards list 2023 has been increased from 50 (the value used for the 2020 list) to 55.”

A total of 37 countries were listed under the African Region category, including Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Gabon.

Others were Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Only Haiti was named under the Region of the Americas category, while the Eastern Mediterranean Region category comprised Afghanistan, Djibouti, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

Under the South-East Asia Region category were Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste.

Among the countries listed in the Western Pacific Region category were Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Micronesia (Federated States of), Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Samoa, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.