Increasing migration of healthcare workers has resulted in an emergency in the developing world

BBC News:

The British Medical Association warned lives were being lost because of staff shortages, particularly in Africa.

Two-thirds of new doctors and 40% of nurses in the UK came from abroad last year, although the health service does have an ethical recruitment code.

The BMA and Royal College of Nurses have signed up to an international treaty criticising the skills drain.

BMA chairman James Johnson said: "The failure of countries like the US, and to a lesser extent the UK, to train enough doctors has had devastating consequences for the developing world.

"In many parts of Africa there is simply no healthcare of any kind. This cannot go on, it's time for us to act."

Sub-Saharan Africa is short of 1m healthcare workers and in Ghana there are only 1,500 doctors for a population of 20m, as two-thirds of young doctors leave the country within three years of graduation.

The paper, which the two UK organisations have signed along with colleagues from the US, Canada, South Africa and Commonwealth nurse and doctors groups, demanded all signatories must try to become self-sufficient in their recruitment.

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