WHO Report: 45 Million New Jobs In Health Workforce By 2030

A new report from the World Health Organization says there will be 45 million new jobs in the health workforce worldwide by the end of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in 2030. But most of the new jobs will be created in upper-middle and high-income nations.

The report is summarized in document EB/138/36 [pdf] from the 25-30 January WHO Executive Board meeting.

The Board document is entitled, “Health workforce and services: Draft global strategy on human resources for health: workforce 2030.” (It refers to a WHO report in press entitled, “Health in 2015: from MDGs, Millennium Development Goals to SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals.”)

In a section of the Board document entitled, “A global health workforce deficit, with a mismatch between demand, need and supply,” it states:

“8. The demand for social and health care is growing. Population growth, demographic and epidemiological transitions, and the ageing of the existing health workforce are projected to fuel the creation of more than 45 million employment opportunities in the health workforce by 2030. Most of these jobs will be created in upper middle- and high-income countries. Conversely, updated projections on the health workforce required to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage indicate a potential deficit of 18 million health workers in low-and middle-income countries. Both the economic demand and the population need for health workers will be equally challenged by the existing constraints on the technical and financial resources available to educational institutions to produce the future health workforce of the necessary quantity, quality and relevance.”

This calls for public policy action, the document said. It continues:

“9. This anticipated mismatch will require innovative responses to models of care provision and education, namely reorientation of care from hospitals to other settings and its delivery in flexible multidisciplinary teams with appropriate competencies and scope of work. Scaling up such innovation may not be enough, however. The global response will require intersectoral engagement that recognizes health workforce education, recruitment, deployment and retention as an engine for inclusive growth and prosperity with a positive impact across the Sustainable Development Goals. The draft global strategy makes the case that domestic and international investment in the health workforce offers a triple return: social and economic benefits, especially for women; improved health outcomes;and a robust front-line defence for global health security.”