Study of health human resource migration in India

Background Human Resource for Health (HRH) migration is an emerging concern in the development paradigm due to the critical importance to sustainability of health system in India. Being the largest human resource supplier to the world, it is important to analyze the consequences of the migration of HRH in the delivery of healthcare services to the country’s population. The study evidences limited to examine the size, distribution of the existing human resources or trends or patterns in migration. The consequences of migration have its implications to the healthcare delivery mechanism which needed to be critically analyzed. Review Methodology The methodology adopted in the paper is descriptive design. The critical review used to evaluate the existing evidence and to develop conceptual framework. The process involved the setting of the inclusion and exclusion criteria to select the articles. It included wide range of articles from the world development reports to specific studies oriented on the HRH scenario of the country. The search strategy comprised both form of studies qualitative and quantitative. The study utilizes the official data set published as report form. Main Findings The data on the migration in context of India, not systematically updated in the existing evidences. The availability of data on migration limits to few reports i.e.(World Health Organization) WHO’s Joint Learning Initiatives and studies which combines census data of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and results in the number of foreign born health professionals. 1. A major proportion of the research studies reviewed describes the disparity in distribution of HRH between rural-urban and public-private. Few researches focused towards the policy environment of the source and destination country for the migration. 2. There is pool of literature explaining the factors of migration but it margins when to analyze the significant implications to healthcare delivery mechanism and health outcomes for the source country. GJMEDPH 2015; Vol. 4, issue 3 1Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work, (UGC Centre of Advanced Study), Faculty of Social Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University), New Delhi and Visiting Research Professor, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, USA 2Assistanr Professor, Department of Social Work, Aditi Mahavidyalaya, University of Delhi and Doctoral Fellow, Department of Social Work, (UGC Centre of Advanced Study), Faculty of Social Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University), New Delhi *Corresponding Author: Panneer Sigamani Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work, (UGC Centre of Advanced Study), Faculty of Social Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University), New Delhi and Visiting Research Professor, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, USA sigamanip@jmi.ac.in Conflict of Interest—none Funding—none 1 www.gjmedph.org Vol. 4, No. 3 2015 ISSN#- 2277-9604 Recommendations The paper recommends with the strategic initiative requisition for the live data records to update the HRH situation in the country. The imperative need of additional HRH training, retaining and recruiting is essential for the health system. The country specific human resource policy is vital for the strengthening of the healthcare services and regularizing of movement of health professional within and out of the country. The study gives an insight on emerging concern towards the HRH movement and considers the consequences rationally on the public health system of the country. Conclusion The research paper results into giving an idea to understand the present scenario of HRH in India. Though the present HRH information system is generalized description of the number of health professionals registered with the respective councils. It does not explain the exact quantification of the extent of the HRH migration, even though it is common among the health professionals. It is important to establish relation among the variables of migration and its consequence to the health system. The need for developing greater understanding for the long term consequences of migration on the source country is essential factors to be analyzed. The study limited to the secondary data analysis on HRH migration