The need for standardising healthcare recruitment in the digital age Jim Campbell, Director of Health Workforce at the World Health Organization, speaks to Sarah Cartledge about the need for an international healthcare workforce register in the current climate
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orkforce has always been a pivotal issue within healthcare discourse, even before the Covid-19 pandemic threw global healthcare systems into total disarray. As the world’s population continues to increase exponentially in some areas and ageing populations further develop in others, the question of how we can continue to provide and better our healthcare systems is a conundrum with no simple answer. However, the pandemic has provided us with more information than we once thought. By showing us what doesn’t work and which systems are no longer sustainable, we can garner key lessons and kickstart a new strategy that will enable healthcare systems to thrive. Slowly but surely, governments are beginning to recognise the major healthcare problem is with workforce and it needs to be addressed effectively. “A series of reports and reviews of the Covid-19 pandemic recommendations clearly say that in European healthcare systems, the public health requirement, and the preparedness element of our organisations have seen massive underinvestment for far too long,” says Jim. “A good comparison is a budget airline; there’s no bandwidth. If you sell every ticket and 10 per cent of the tickets twice to account for no-shows, if everyone does turn up, you’re overcrowded - and overcrowded means underfunded and understaffed. It’s the reality.” As such, the world is waking up to the workforce problem. With underfunding, lack of resources, and poor recruitment into health services greatly exacerbating the issues which we have faced throughout the pandemic, now is the time to refocus efforts. Yet, when the issue is not only monetary, but largely a human resource issue, where do we begin?
The digital solution The rise of digital health solutions has been one of the most important aspects of the pandemic. Innovators and entrepreneurs have responded rapidly with platforms and apps that have accustomed healthcare workers and patients alike to a new way of viewing their health. Telehealth and mHealth technologies, health monitoring apps, and tracing have all been tools which have rapidly developed throughout the past two years, and the benefits of which have been seen in all fields - chiefly due to the requirement born out of social distancing. Yet this is not something which only fulfils a purpose within the pandemic. Digital health will continue to be the sharp end of healthcare in the 21st century, and long after the pandemic becomes endemic. However, what can digital do to improve the issues within the healthcare workforce? The answer, Jim suggests, lies in regulation. “I personally believe that we should have a global register. We have the technology to do this, instead of having separate registration systems and medical registers, a global system which still operates through licences. We’ve been seeing the use of digital solutions around
Jim Campbell Director of Health Workforce WHO
“In practice, we now have an open mechanism to facilitate qualification, which can be transferable across jurisdictions”
data, information, recordkeeping and vaccinations all come through into a totally different age and now being used to enable public health and safety measures. “Yet, are we ever going to see this change in regulatory behaviour? In practice, we now have an open mechanism to facilitate qualification, which can be transferable across jurisdictions - and could potentially save the industry billions of dollars.” The global scramble for health workers In the UK, a huge portion of the NHS relies on staff who are not domestically trained but have been brought in from abroad - chiefly Asia. However, this is not a sustainable model nor a strategy for a pandemic, especially now that many NHS staff are leaving the organisation to work elsewhere. So, how can the NHS continue
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