Welcome

NEW STUDY RELEASE:

Sub-Saharan Africa To Face Shortage Of Nearly 800,000 Health Care Professionals In 2015

According to a new study in Health Affairs, thirty-one Sub-Saharan African countries will face a shortage of 240,000 doctors and 551,000 nurses and midwives. The countries are expected to have a total of 371,000 doctors, nurses, and midwives in 2015 — just 32 percent of the needed 1.163 million health care professionals.

Eliminating this shortfall would require an annual wage bill of approximately $2.6 billion, more than 2.5 times the current wage-bill projections for 2015, say Richard Scheffler, a Distinguished Professor of Health Economics and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and coauthors. Additional funds would be required to hire health care support staff, train the new professionals and support staff, and pay for expenses such as supplies, pharmaceuticals, equipment, and facilities.