Flagship project: The Global Primary Care Workforce
Our team is leading a landmark project to establish baseline estimates of the primary care workforce in every country, in collaboration with WHO and WONCA and drawing on leading primary care researchers from across all regions. We will present our findings at the 2030 UN General Assembly.
The Problem
Despite widespread recognition of the centrality of the health workforce to strong systems, global data on the primary care workforce (distinct from health workforce more broadly) are extremely limited. Existing workforce data tend not to disaggregate the stock and distribution of health workers by setting. Without accurate baseline estimates, it is difficult to plan, benchmark, or track investments in PHC staffing equity, distribution, and resilience.
Approach
We will (i) define a global taxonomy of primary care roles and functions, (ii) gather national and subnational data through multiple sources (ministries, workforce registries, professional associations, surveys), (iii) harmonise and validate data across countries using quality control and triangulation, (iv) estimate workforce densities, distributions, and skill mixes for five main primary care cadres, and (v) identify gaps and patterns (e.g. rural–urban, income strata, regional disparities). We will forecast future scenarios of minimum staffing thresholds based on different models of working, including remote supervision, multidisciplinary care,
and AI-augmented care.
Impact
By providing the first globally harmonised baseline of primary care workforce metrics, this project will strengthen the evidence base for global and national PHC planning. Policymakers, WHO, WONCA and donors will be able to benchmark, set targets, and monitor progress. Over time, the data may guide investments in recruitment, training, retention and redistribution of PHC personnel, helping to close inequities in access and reinforce primary care’s role in achieving UHC.
Team members
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Amadea Turk
NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow
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Michael Kidd
Professor of Global Primary Care and Future Health Systems
