Brain drain of healthcare professionals from Pakistan from 1971 to 2022: Evidence-based analysis

Brain drain from Pakistan

  • Sultan Ayoub Meo College of Medicine, King Saud University
  • Tehreem Sultan School of Law, Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA.
Keywords: Brain drain, Healthcare professionals, Intellectual migration, Pakistan

Abstract

Since the creation of Pakistan in August 1947, political instability has been a persistent issue in the country, causing a migration of highly qualified, skilled people, and healthcare professionals. From 1971 to 2022 the total number of highly qualified and skilled people including healthcare professionals who migrated from the country is 60,19,888. Among them, 251677 (4.18%), were highly qualified, 455097 (7.55%) were highly skilled, and 5313114 (88.27%) were skilled professionals. Moreover, 50110 (0.83%) were healthcare professionals including doctors 31418 (62.69%), nurses 12853 (25.64%), and pharmacists 5839 (11.65%). The unsustainable political environment, lack of advanced technology-based institutes, poor healthcare infrastructure, low job opportunities and salary benefits in Pakistan caused the brain drain of highly qualified people including healthcare professionals. It adversely affected the academic institutes, the healthcare system, socio-economic growth, research productivity, and the development of the nation. The government of Pakistan must establish sustainable policies to minimize the brain drain of highly qualified people, and healthcare professionals, and recuperate the prosperity of their academic institutes and healthcare system for better healthcare services, and the advancement and sustainable development of the nation.

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.4.7853

How to cite this: Meo SA, Sultan T. Brain drain of healthcare professionals from Pakistan from 1971 to 2022: Evidence-based analysis. Pak J Med Sci. 2023;39(4):921-925. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.4.7853

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published
2023-05-27
How to Cite
Meo, S. A., & Sultan, T. (2023). Brain drain of healthcare professionals from Pakistan from 1971 to 2022: Evidence-based analysis: Brain drain from Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 39(4). https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.4.7853
Section
Leading Article

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