Emily Bell — Welcome to the Who Cares? Campaign Blog

Welcome to the Who Cares? Campaign blog!

We hope this blog will provide a space for volunteers, health workers, academia, media and other concerned individuals to engage in informative discussion about the shortage of health workers in Africa. How is the severe shortage of doctors and nurses affecting medical care in Tanzania? What are the bottlenecks? What can people outside of Africa do about this important issue?

We were pleased to see that the New York Times has recently drawn attention to the dire shortage of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals in Tanzania by publishing a series of articles that focus on the country’s high maternal death rates. “Where Life’s Start is a Deadly Risk” (May 23, 2009) outlines the obstacles pregnant women face in receiving timely care, while the second article, “The Deadly Toll of Abortion by Amateurs” (June 1, 2009) discusses the perils of women who have had incomplete and unsafe abortions in Tanzania. The first article shares that Tanzania is “struggling to train more assistants and midwives, build more clinics and nursing schools, provide housing to attract doctors and nurses to rural areas and provide places for pregnant women to stay near hospitals so that they can make it to the labor ward on time…. ‘You can never get used to maternal deaths,’ said Dr. Siriel Nanzia Massawe…. ‘One minute she’s talking with her husband, then she is bleeding and then she is gone…. Too many die, too young. But the people in power, they have not seen it. We need to make them aware.’”

Fortunately, powerful people are becoming aware of the issue and starting to take action, bolstering the Touch Foundation’s efforts. In a follow-up letter to the editor, Senator Dick Durbin points to the complicity of the developed world in contributing to the health workers shortage in Africa. Durbin notes that the United States lures health workers from the developing world who emigrate for opportunities to “supply our growing appetite for healthcare.” Fortunately for Tanzania, health worker emigration is relatively low compared to other countries in the region, as only 6-15 percent of doctors and almost 0-5 percent of nurses emigrate. The country does, however, suffer from an internal loss of talent, as many health workers opt for higher paying jobs with international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and government ministries, which reduces overall access to care, as we found in our Lake Zone Initiative.

Thank you for visiting our blog. Let us know your comments and thoughts!

Emily Bell is Head of Advocacy and Communications at the Touch Foundation.