Hi,
No, we are against active recruitment and facilitated migration of trained health professionals from needy countries to wealthy countries.
That's about sums it up - there's a difference between a natural flow of people due to personal choices and systematic recruitment/poaching of ready-to-employ scarce human resources. (In Australia, to take an example, it's taken even further - they generally want only highly skilled professional but they don't want people above 40).
I've noted that UK ministers recently signalled they would discourage systematic recruitement drives, though - so somebody is getting the message (we'll see how it turns out in practice, though..).
To put a bit of balance into the poaching picture: Many countries in desperate need of more doctors (particularly in poor, rural areas), including South Africa, are also not doing enough to facilitate e.g. European or US doctors who might want to work here. It's getting better, but until recently it was a bureaucratic nightmare to get all the permissions and licenses you needed.
Finally, just to put the focus back where it started: One key difference between countries with far too few doctors - but often easier access to e.g. admin staff (South Africa has 40% unemployment rate, many of them matriculants that could fill admin positions) - is that it makes little sense to increase doctor workload but decrease admin workload. It makes more sense to do the opposite, and I think that's one reason why most EHR systems don't work well here - they are tailored for health systems with a much higher density of doctors.
So while we might regret excessive brain-drain, it is not likely to change much in the short term. What needs to change is the design and focus of EHR systems in societies with already over-loaded health personnel.
Best regards Calle
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Calle Hedberg
46D Alma Road,
7700 Rosebank, SOUTH AFRICA
Tel/fax (home): +27-21-685-6472; Cell: +27-82-853-5352
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