3 4 7 8 Furthermore, emerging data suggest that maintaining health sector employment can contribute to the growth of other sectors in society and can bolster the resilience of national economies during downturns. 6 This poses a real risk to patients because the ratio of health workers, especially doctors, to the overall population is strongly linked to important health outcomes. 5 In England, the National Health Service is regarded to be in crisis with an estimated shortage of approximately 100 000 health workers.
Health workforce shortages are a worldwide problem and the WHO estimates that by 2030, there will be a projected worldwide shortfall of 18 million health workers. 5 This includes clinical staff, for example, doctors and nurses, and non-clinical staff, for example, hospital managers and accountants.
The quality and performance of a country’s healthcare system is greatly influenced by the size, skill mix and allocation of its health workforce, 1–4 which the WHO defines as ‘all people engaged in actions with the primary intent of enhancing health’(World Health Organization, p1).
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