The missing millions: leadership and the global workforce crisis in healthcare

There is no health without a workforce and yet by 2030 the World Health Organisation predicts the world will be short of 18 million health workers - a staggering statistic that nevertheless masks an even greater, but less quantifiable one - the number of patients who will go without care as a result. The global workforce crisis is not a simple problem to solve; it is not even a complicated one; it is complex. Coordinated action is required at every level, from global to individual - no single action is sufficient, and no single organisation can do it alone. In this chapter, we describe ten high-impact actions to resolve the crisis. Each action is illustrated with international best practice and considers the leadership skills required to successfully implement them. In the last section, we consider the health sector as a Complex Adaptive System and consider its implications for systems leadership.