Exodus of medical staff - No Way Out?

According to a report by Physicians for Human Rights, released at the International Aids Conference in Bangkok, 50% of medical school graduates in Ghana emigrate within five years of qualifying and 75% leave after 10 years.

The report said 5,334 doctors trained in African medical schools were practising in the US in 2002. The flow of nurses and pharmacists to Europe has also risen.

Some African countries, especially Ghana and Zambia, have begun to offer new financial incentives to keep doctors and nurses at home. Benefits include subsidised mortgages and car loans which health workers can repay over their careers.

The UK has already adopted a code of practice that forbids the National Health Service from recruiting nurses from Africa, although charities said health workers were still leaving to work in private British nursing homes.

Migration of nurses to the UK is a problem, but the government can not stop staff from leaving the country.

Africa's healthcare systems, already struggling with rising numbers of Aids patients, is thus being undermined by the "poaching" of nurses and doctors by developed countries.

The public health systems of most sub-Saharan African countries are suffering significant shortages of health professionals, because hospitals in Europe and the US have lured many trained African doctors and nurses with the prospect of higher wages and better working conditions.