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Human: Solving the global workforce crisis in healthcare
By 2030, the world will be short of approximately 15 million health workers - a fifth of the workforce needed to keep healthcare systems going. Global healthcare leader and award-winning author, Dr Mark Britnell, uses his unique insights from advising governments, executives, and clinicians in more than 70 countries, to present solutions to this impending Solving the Global Workforce Crisis in Healthcare, calls for a reframing of the global debate about health and national wealth, and invites us to deal with this problem in new and adaptive ways that drive economic and human prosperity. Harnessing technology, it asks us to reimagine new models of care and levels of workforce agility.Drawing on experiences ranging from the world's most advanced hospitals to revolutionary new approaches in India and Africa, Dr Mark Britnell makes it clear what works - and what does not. Short and concise, this book gives a truly global perspective on the fundamental workforce issues facing health systems today.
- GenresNonfiction
210 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 18, 2019
22 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 9, 2025
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Feelings about the book:
- What a great book, what a book. I loved every second of this book and (yet again if you've read some of my other reviews), this was a random charity shop pick-up. Got to love it.
Premise/Plot:
- Mark Britnell provides a solution-focused exploration of the global shortage of healthcare workers. He does this by portraying how people around the world are trying to solve various health issues. From medical conditions to structural issues.
- Britnell documents successful strategies that nations, citizens and companies for issues like retainment of staff, training and recruiting staff, dropping mortality rates and more.
Themes:
- Hope for a better future, calls for nations and companies to enlist best practices, global health comparisons, global health inequality, workforce sustainability, innovation and more
Pros:
- Packs a punch: the problem is perfectly articulated and so are the solutions provided
- Very accessible read; everyone should read this book
- Britnell doesn't get bogged down in ideology, we're beyond that with this problem.
- Extremely well researched, Britnell also shows how the global south is tackling health-related issues
- Human-centred, and advocates for valuing healthcare workers.
Cons:
- Some would say that ideology plays a role - capitalism and its limits should have been addressed.
Quotes:
‘Projections indicate that by 2030 demand for health workers will rise to 80 million, but the World Health Organisation estimates there will be a worldwide shortage of around 18 million, more than one in five of the people we will need.’
‘More countries are opening doors to foreign-trained physicians, with Israel topping the league with 58% of all its doctors trained abroad. This is followed by Australia at 30%, the United Kingdom at 28%, United States at 25%, and Canada at 23%.’
‘For example, it has been estimated that if every African health worker who had received some level of health worker training and then emigrated were to return home, this would only address about 10% of the shortage in the continent.’
‘The paradox of the global healthcare workforce is that while it has never been more abundant, it has never been scarcer relative to future patient needs.’
‘In 2018, there were close to 21,000 applicants for just over 6,500 places, a potentially damaging neglect of talent. The year before, NHS spending on expensive agency staff to plug clinical vacancies was £1.3 billion.’
‘A paper by Dubois and Singh in 2009 estimates that advanced practice nurses can handle about 70% of a GP’s workload.’
‘Simple interventions can be highly effective. A study of pregnant women in Zanzibar found that access to a text and phone advice service called Wired Mums halved perinatal mortality.’
‘The 19,000 nurses that leave the Philippines every year send back billions of pesos annually, an important component in the remittance flows which make up around 10% of the country’s GDP.’
‘People with long-term conditions account for 50% of all GP appointments, 65% of all outpatient visits, and 70% of all inpatient bed days.’
Feelings about the book:
- What a great book, what a book. I loved every second of this book and (yet again if you've read some of my other reviews), this was a random charity shop pick-up. Got to love it.
Premise/Plot:
- Mark Britnell provides a solution-focused exploration of the global shortage of healthcare workers. He does this by portraying how people around the world are trying to solve various health issues. From medical conditions to structural issues.
- Britnell documents successful strategies that nations, citizens and companies for issues like retainment of staff, training and recruiting staff, dropping mortality rates and more.
Themes:
- Hope for a better future, calls for nations and companies to enlist best practices, global health comparisons, global health inequality, workforce sustainability, innovation and more
Pros:
- Packs a punch: the problem is perfectly articulated and so are the solutions provided
- Very accessible read; everyone should read this book
- Britnell doesn't get bogged down in ideology, we're beyond that with this problem.
- Extremely well researched, Britnell also shows how the global south is tackling health-related issues
- Human-centred, and advocates for valuing healthcare workers.
Cons:
- Some would say that ideology plays a role - capitalism and its limits should have been addressed.
Quotes:
‘Projections indicate that by 2030 demand for health workers will rise to 80 million, but the World Health Organisation estimates there will be a worldwide shortage of around 18 million, more than one in five of the people we will need.’
‘More countries are opening doors to foreign-trained physicians, with Israel topping the league with 58% of all its doctors trained abroad. This is followed by Australia at 30%, the United Kingdom at 28%, United States at 25%, and Canada at 23%.’
‘For example, it has been estimated that if every African health worker who had received some level of health worker training and then emigrated were to return home, this would only address about 10% of the shortage in the continent.’
‘The paradox of the global healthcare workforce is that while it has never been more abundant, it has never been scarcer relative to future patient needs.’
‘In 2018, there were close to 21,000 applicants for just over 6,500 places, a potentially damaging neglect of talent. The year before, NHS spending on expensive agency staff to plug clinical vacancies was £1.3 billion.’
‘A paper by Dubois and Singh in 2009 estimates that advanced practice nurses can handle about 70% of a GP’s workload.’
‘Simple interventions can be highly effective. A study of pregnant women in Zanzibar found that access to a text and phone advice service called Wired Mums halved perinatal mortality.’
‘The 19,000 nurses that leave the Philippines every year send back billions of pesos annually, an important component in the remittance flows which make up around 10% of the country’s GDP.’
‘People with long-term conditions account for 50% of all GP appointments, 65% of all outpatient visits, and 70% of all inpatient bed days.’
Displaying 1 of 1 review