A Review of Human Resource for Health in Uganda

Abstract

The importance of human resources in health systems needs not to be over-emphasised. Expenditure on health workers forms a significant proportion of total health expenditure in many countries. In order to effectively implement cost-effective interventions, health workers must have the appropriate skills, competencies, training and motivation to do so. However, current evidence (MoH 2001, WHO 2002) suggests that health systems in developing countries are understaffed and exhibit mal-distribution of health workers. Health workers are generally de-motivated and less productive due to inappropriate incentive environment. Demographic, epidemiological, technological, economic and political changes have created huge human resource challenges for such constrained health systems. The situation has been worsened by the spread of the deadly HIV/AIDS pandemic that has had an immense impact on health systems capacity particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The depletion rate of health workers due to HIV/AIDS related deaths is much higher than the replacement rate, leaving most health systems incapacitated in many ways. Internal and external migration of health workers is a large global challenge that seems to be affecting many developing countries.