This article was on the front page of a Tanzanian newspaper called The Citizen on Saturday. Statistics become so much more real when you lived and worked with the people they refer to. (I’ve paraphrased and reworded a few things).
Tanzania has a population of between 40 and 44 million people.
Currently, Tanzania trains and produces only 800 health personnel annually.
35,000 – the estimated number of health workers in Tanzania, which has a personnel shortage of about 90,000 people.
The WHO says 34 of the 57 countries facing the most severe health worker shortages are in Africa, including all the five members of the East African Community (EAC). The overall situation is so grim that the Second Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, which was held late last month, called for a quick intervention to help save lives lost due to the shortage.
GHWA (global health workforce alliance) says the shortage of health workers in many developing countries is a major obstacle in addressing HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, as well as responding to emerging diseases and new pandemics.
The agency further cautions that low pay, poor working conditions and limited training programmes also contribute to the problem, in addition to the flight of health professionals from poor countries to seek greener pastures abroad.
Various local and international studies have established that the shortage is more pronounced in rural and marginalized areas, and covers mid-level workers such as clinicians, nurses, midwives, laboratory staff, pharmaceutical technicians, health officers and administrators.
WHO categorizes countries faced with a ‘critical’ health worker shortage as those with fewer than 23 health workers for every 10,000 people. Tanzania fairs dismally in this regard as one doctor attends an average of 20,000 people.
Doctors (per 10,000 people)
Tanzania 0.5
Kenya 1
Uganda 1
Rwanda 0.5
Burundi 0.5
UK 21
U.S 27
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