Health Manpower Allocation in Developing Countries

Abstract

Most developing countries have shortages of health manpower in rural areas. To address this problem, national strategies have included the establishment of salaried posts for rural doctors, construction of rural hospitals and health centres, mandating periods of rural service for all new medical graduates, providing special financial incentives to attract practitioners to rural communities, furnishing transport of personnel, and restricting settlement in major cities. If universal entitlement to health care were legislated for, as in Western Europe and in socialist countries, rural as well as urban populations would be covered. China's development of the “barefoot doctor” dramatised the value of the briefly trained community health worker (CHW) after 1971. Unfortunately, CHWs in many countries proved disappointing, because of inadequate training, poor supervision, and other deficiencies. With political commitment, however, these problems can be overcome.