Ghana has been added to the list of 54 nations from which health and social care employers in the United Kingdom should refrain from actively recruiting.
The news came in the form of an updated code of practise for the foreign recruitment of health and social care employees in England, issued by the UK government.
According to the announcement, certain developing countries shouldn’t be specifically targeted when actively seeking health or medical professionals, including Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, and Nigeria.
The UK government announced this on the NHS website, saying that the countries on the list had a UHC Service Coverage Index of less than 50 and a lower-than-average density of medical professionals that is lower than the worldwide median (48.6 per 10,000 population).
The United Kingdom government noted that the list was developed using the WHO Workforce Support and Safeguard List, 2023, and that it will be updated every three years in conjunction with reports on the status of the implementation of the WHO Global Code.
But the list doesn’t stop individual health and social care workers from applying to health and social care employers in the UK on their own, without being asked to do so by a third party like a recruitment firm or employer. (known as a direct application).
The countries placed on the red list of ‘No active recruitment’ under the code are:
Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Federated States of Micronesia, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Republic of Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
