Forced displacement and the health workforce crisis: Venezuelan healthcare workers in Peru

Abstract

The migration of health workforces tends to be economically based benefiting high-income countries, while draining lower-income countries of workers and skills However, national instability or civil conflict may also have the effect of forcing out health workers. However, few articles focus on the experiences of these types of migrants. Peru has become the second largest Latin American destination for Venezuelan forced displaced migrants, a number of which are health workers. While the exact numbers of these workers is unknown, it is estimated that 4000 and 3000 doctors and about 2500 nurses and health technicians from Venezuela reside in Peru. These workers find entry into the heath system difficult due to bureaucratic and costly registration and qualification validation procedures. However, during Covid-19 these conditions were relaxed, and a large number of these heath workers entered the heath workforce. These workers were primarily doctors and worked in urban medical facilities, though there was some distribution across the country's departments. This avenue to the health workforce allowed the mobilisation of dormant health skills and lifted workforce density numbers. Nonetheless, it is too early to see if there have been sustainable improvements, and it remains uncertain how these policies have contributed to the country's UHC goals. Peru's experiences raise the issue of how to mobilise dormant displaced health worker migrants.