UN to set up new commission to address global doctor shortages

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will set up a new commission to deal with global doctor shortages, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here Monday.

The establishment of the commission, which will be officially announced in late March, is in response to a UN General Assembly resolution "which recognized that investing in new health work force employment opportunities may also add broader socio-economic values to the economy," said Dujarric.

The commission will be co-chaired by presidents of South Africa and France, Jacob Zuma and Francois Hollande, and the two presidents will represent the Global North and Global South on the commission.

"The secretary-general looks forward to the joint leadership of President Zuma and President Hollande," Dujarric said,

The commission will also have three vice-chairs: Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Margaret Chan, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Angel Gurria and Director-General of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Guy Ryder, said Dujarric.

The WHO predicts that the world will have a shortfall of 12.9 million health-care workers by 2035, compared to a shortage of 7.2 million in 2013.

The shortfall will be particularly sharply felt in sub-Saharan Africa where 11 countries have no medical schools, and 24 countries have only one medical school, according to the WHO.

Liberia, one of the countries worst effected by Ebola, had only 130 doctors for a country of 4.5 million people before the Ebola outbreak. Many of these doctors died from Ebloa, which means that Liberia has even fewer doctors now to help Ebola recovery efforts, according to the WHO. Endit