Too many doctors!

ABSTRACT

The training of more health professionals, particularly doctors, than national health systems can absorb is the root cause of the present surplus. In the 1960s and 1970s, overproduction of health manpower in many countries was compensated by emigration, but now the labour markets for doctors and perhaps also for dentists and nurses have become satured in the major recipient countries. Economic crises are also aggravating the problem and, in all sectors, unemployment has risen and pressures for cost containment have been intensified