title: The health workforce crisis in Pakistan: a critical review and the way forward.
abstract: Today, the developing world suffers due to the health "workforce crisis." The World Health Report 2006 uses this term to study the current scenario in the developing countries. Human resource planning is a critical activity within the broader sectoral planning, especially when it comes to the health sector. Pakistan faces an acute shortage of different cadres of healthcare workers, which is bound to escalate further because of the high population growth rate, inequitable distribution and out-migration of the healthcare workforce. In the wake of ongoing reforms in the health sector of Pakistan, it is suggested that for the strengthening of health systems, there ought to be a serious thought process involved for developing a human resource plan for the health sector that responds to the needs of the population and the disease burden. A national strategy is imperative to retain, train and incentivize the health workforce.
authors.affiliation: Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad.
authors.forename: Muhammad Ahmed
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Abdullah
authors.affiliation: Health Services Academy, Islamabad.
authors.forename: Fatima
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mukhtar
authors.affiliation: Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad.
authors.forename: Salim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wazir
authors.affiliation: Health Services Academy, Islamabad.
authors.forename: Irum
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gilani
authors.affiliation: Health Services Academy, Islamabad.
authors.forename: Zulfikar
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gorar
authors.affiliation: Health Services Academy, Islamabad.
authors.forename: Babar Tasneem
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Shaikh
mesh_terms: D003906:Developing Countries; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006291:Health Policy; D006280:Health Workforce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D010154:Pakistan