Which countries are thought to have expanded supply by enough to counteract physician emigration? What is the estimate of deaths per lost doctor in ones that haven’t?
The Philippines is the classic example for supply expansion (though for nurses, not doctors). I'm not aware of any well-identified studies that try to isolate deaths per doctor migrated, though I do try to benchmark it a bit in the original post: https://www.laurenpolicy.com/p/migration-of-doctors-and-nurses.
As I note in the footnote (and somewhat in the original post), though, I also don't think it's realistic to try to keep doctors from migrating. (Among other things, some LICs don't have the ability to do particular kinds of training - for instance, if you wish to be an anesthesiologist in Malawi, you *have* to move to South Africa for additional training.)
Thanks. I was aware of the Philippines results for nurses, but I’ve been looking for something similar for physicians because I assume they’re more expensive to train and thus harder to expand supply for.
I think physicians are somewhat of a red herring in the context of LMICs, and especially LICs, because they're so rare! The US has ~36 doctors per 10k people; many LICs hover around 1-3. The vast majority of medical care is done by nurses and CHWs.
Dare to imagine a world where supply of healthcare workers is allowed to expand to meet demand
Which countries are thought to have expanded supply by enough to counteract physician emigration? What is the estimate of deaths per lost doctor in ones that haven’t?
The Philippines is the classic example for supply expansion (though for nurses, not doctors). I'm not aware of any well-identified studies that try to isolate deaths per doctor migrated, though I do try to benchmark it a bit in the original post: https://www.laurenpolicy.com/p/migration-of-doctors-and-nurses.
As I note in the footnote (and somewhat in the original post), though, I also don't think it's realistic to try to keep doctors from migrating. (Among other things, some LICs don't have the ability to do particular kinds of training - for instance, if you wish to be an anesthesiologist in Malawi, you *have* to move to South Africa for additional training.)
Thanks. I was aware of the Philippines results for nurses, but I’ve been looking for something similar for physicians because I assume they’re more expensive to train and thus harder to expand supply for.
I think physicians are somewhat of a red herring in the context of LMICs, and especially LICs, because they're so rare! The US has ~36 doctors per 10k people; many LICs hover around 1-3. The vast majority of medical care is done by nurses and CHWs.