Doctors' and nurses' organisations yesterday called on the G8 leaders to stop the haemorrhage of healthcare staff from poor countries who are recruited to fill gaps in the developed world.
James Johnson, chairman of the British Medical Association, and Beverley Malone, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, wrote to the prime minister, Tony Blair, and the chancellor, Gordon Brown, urging them to press for restraints on poaching by the G8 countries.
The US was the clear focus of their concern. In their letters, they pointed out that America was likely to hoover up doctors and nurses, not only from the developing world, but also from the UK, because of its own shortages. By 2020, they said, the projected deficit in the US would be 200,000 doctors and 800,000 nurses.
"Countries around the world, including the UK, are likely to lose substantial numbers of doctors and nurses to the USA," they wrote to Mr Blair. But the situation was desperate in underdeveloped regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, where often there would be less than one healthcare worker for 1,000 people - a situation that was becoming even worse because of migration and premature deaths from Aids.
Yet the region needed a million more healthcare workers to meet the millennium development goals set by the UN, which include halving child deaths and tackling the major diseases by 2015.
"As medical and nursing associations we are very conscious that the prevention and treatment of ill health are essential prerequisites to enable poor people to escape poverty," they wrote. "The lack of healthcare workers in developing countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, is an emergency that demands urgent action."
They praised the lead given by Mr Blair and Mr Brown. "The UK government has led the way in establishing a code of good practice for ethical recruitment. It is now essential that other developed countries, such as the USA, make a similar commitment."
Rich countries must take steps to ensure "self-sufficiency in their healthcare workforces", such as recruiting and training more people already living in the UK.
They congratulated Mr Brown for publicly acknowledging the importance of vaccination programmes in developing countries, but said that "one of the main barriers to achieving vaccination targets is likely to be a lack of healthcare professionals in the countries concerned".
Their call was backed by the 4,500-strong Christian Medical Fellowship, which urged the UK to help train and support doctors in the developing world.
"It is not enough simply to condemn developing world doctors from coming here and to criticise western governments for poaching them," said the general secretary, Peter Saunders. "We have to do something positive to help staff retention in the developing world, and good role models and good training are the key to this."
The Liberal Democrat health spokesman, Steve Webb, said Britain should take the lead in finding a global solution to a global problem: "Overseas staff are a valuable asset for the NHS, but they simply must not be exploited to cover up the failure to recruit and retain British doctors and nurses."
