Impact and implications of the continued drain of qualified nursing and health care personnel from the global south to support failing wealthy health care systems in the global north: the case of the British NHS

Watson, Naomi Anna (2023). Impact and implications of the continued drain of qualified nursing and health care personnel from the global south to support failing wealthy health care systems in the global north: the case of the British NHS. In: Trans-Atlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race, 10-14 Jul 2023, University of Lusaka, Zambia.

Abstract

This paper explores the extent to which the current drain of qualified healthcare personnel from the Global South to the Global North can be sustained for the future. It considers the UK’s NHS as an example and examines the impact nationally and globally.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) 2021 identified that the recent Covid-19 pandemic had a major negative impact on the provision of sustainable health care across the globe. Overstretched healthcare services worldwide were unable to cope with high levels of people who became ill and died.

The WHO’s report was clear that numbers of nursing and health care staff were rapidly diminishing worldwide. It cited the continued drain of qualified staff, educated in, and from the economically poorer Global South, to support the wealthier nations in the Global North as a major contributor. This is responsible for a disproportionate reduction in nursing and health care personnel in many parts of the Global South causing a crisis which has public health and wellbeing implications for the workers and nations concerned.

In the UK, there is a current crisis in the NHS workforce, which is rapidly diminishing in many regions. The continuing disruption from workforce unrest due to strikes relating to pay and staffing has resulted in excessive waiting lists for those who need care. Once again, the NHS is forced to fall back to the Global South for support. This is despite evidence of an NHS that is failing it’s black and brown population, with reports of large numbers dying disproportionately, from the recent Covid-19 Pandemic, including those working in the NHS.

The moral and ethical implications of poaching qualified health care personnel from the Global South will be explored, and the implications examined.

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