The Open University in partnership with the BBC World Service, present a series of special editions of Health Check, the weekly round-up of global health stories and topical issues in medicine. The series is presented by Claudia Hammond.
Episode 3 – Medical Brain Drain goes out on Wednesday 6th April at 8.30 pm on the BBC World Service.
Health Check this week is from Ethiopia, where doctors are leaving in their hundreds to work abroad. Why are they leaving and what is the government is doing to keep medics in the country. Medical migration is an issue faced by countries all over the world, but Ethiopia’s brain drain has left just 1 doctor for nearly 30 000 people. Most doctors are based in cities which means even fewer doctors in rural areas where 85% of Ethiopia’s population live.
In this programme, Health Check’s Claudia Hammond reports from Ethiopia where she talks to medical students to find out why they want to leave. She meets the country’s Health Minister to find out about his measures to keep doctors in the country, and why he hopes training more doctors will mean their leaving stops becoming a problem. She also talks to a general practitioner working in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa to find out what working life for an Ethiopian doctor is really like.
The programme is also available as a podcast on BBC iPlayer.