Topic: 2024-Addressing Healthcare Worker Shortage
Country: Mexico
Delegate Name: Alexander Stillman
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the issue of healthcare worker shortages has become prevalent with many hospitals becoming full of patients who need medical attention without the necessary staff to do so. Many developed nations suffer from this issue; lower and middle income countries also are primarily affected by this issue. Workers from older generations are rapidly leaving the workforce as they slowly approach the age of retirement. Healthcare workers also feel disvalued as their wages often do not keep up with inflation, especially when their profession requires years of learning and training.
Families of possible workers often cannot afford to send their children to medical school due to nominal costs; workers also will be unable to help their families as they will be busy with training. The average life expectancy of people has increased substantially over the past eighty years, causing people to be seeking healthcare longer in older age putting even more strain on the healthcare system. The size of hospitals or other healthcare facilities also majorly affects whether people can go into healthcare work, as small hospitals often only have limited facilities in which they can train workers. Medical students often tend to specify their training in a specific field, causing a lack of general doctors. Additionally, trained medical professionals often go to higher-income nations or regions to get a higher paying job than from where they are from, leaving the area with less or no medical professionals.
Mexico is faced with this harrowing issue; in Mexico, there are 1.95 doctors per 100,000 people while the OECD (Organization for Economic-cooperation and Development) recommends at least 3.2 doctors per 100,000 people. Mexico recommends that nations should work together to establish a basis for which the global medical community can become connected, allowing a more equal distribution of healthcare workers and incentivizing them to not leave their home nations, leaving their countries with not enough healthcare workers.
Works Cited:
Mexico Business. (n.d.). Causes and consequences of doctor shortages. Mexico Business. https://mexicobusiness.news/health/news/causes-and-consequences-doctor-shortages
World Health Organization. (n.d.-a). Health workforce. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/health-topics/health-workforce#tab=tab_1
