Hospitals across income levels report the same problem in different accents: beds and buildings exist, but the staff to run them do not.
Migration compounds the imbalance. Wealthier systems recruit trained clinicians from countries that paid to educate them, a transfer rarely counted in aid statistics.
Retention is the cheaper lever. Rota predictability, childcare and administrative relief consistently outperform one-off bonuses in the studies that track why clinicians leave.
Until workforce planning is treated with the seriousness given to procurement, additional funding will keep producing smaller improvements than ministers expect.
