(Image Source: Vector Portal)

BY HARUMENDHAH HELMY

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

Two billion U.S. dollars. According to a recent study, that’s how much it cost sub-Saharan African countries yearly to train doctors... only to see them find work in more developed nations. Medical News Today has the details.

“The study shows that the biggest emigration of doctors and the greatest economic losses occur in South Africa and Zimbabwe with Australia, Canada, the UK and US reaping the benefits from recruiting clinicians that have been educated elsewhere. … They calculated the UK benefit to be about $2.7 billion USD and approximately $846 million USD for the United States.”

Canadian scientists at the University of Ottawa led the study. Health Canal explains the team’s research methods.

“[The researchers] estimated the monetary cost of educating a doctor through primary, secondary and medical school in nine sub-Saharan countries with significant HIV-prevalence. The research team added the figures together to estimate how much the origin countries paid to train doctors and how much the destination countries saved in employing them.”

Experts are now calling for developed countries to more strictly follow the World Health Organization’s code of practice in recruiting international physicians. Voice of America explains the significance of this guideline.

“[The code] ... calls on wealthy countries to offer financial help to poorer ones affected by the [doctors’] emigration. The code is particularly important for sub-Saharan Africa, with its critical shortage of doctors and its high prevalence of diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.”

But the Telegraph quotes a U.K. Department of Health spokesperson who says-- the code still has its loopholes.

“We are committed to ethical recruitment practices … The UK adheres to the WHO Code of Practice which prevents mass recruitment by [National Health Service] organisations either directly or through agents. We also have our own code. However, the WHO and UK codes cannot prevent applications from individual doctors.”