A new report by the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development (OECD) titled International Migration Outlook 2025 highlights a striking reality: Indian-origin doctors and nurses have become indispensable to the health systems of many advanced economies.
Key Findings
- India is now the single largest source of migrant doctors working across OECD member nations, and the second-largest source of migrant nurses.
- In the 2020-21 period, around 98,857 Indian-born doctors were employed in OECD countries — a 76 % increase since 2000-01. Over 122,400 Indian-born nurses were working abroad in those nations, marking a rise of about 435 % over the same period.
- The report points out that migrant health professionals now make up roughly one-quarter of the doctors and one-sixth of the nurses in OECD countries.
What’s Driving the Trend?
The report attributes this surge in Indian health professionals working abroad to several factors:
- A large medical education system in India that produces many doctors and nurses
- Proficiency in English among many Indian-trained professionals, which helps in global employment.
- Active recruitment by developed countries, and migration pathways that favour health-care professionals.
Implications: Lifeline and Vulnerability
While the role of Indian-origin health workers is a lifeline for many health systems, the OECD report emphasises that there is also a potential vulnerability in this dependence. Structural shortages of doctors and nurses in many advanced nations mean that reliance on foreign-trained professionals is not just a stop-gap.
At the same time, the report raises concerns about the “brain-drain” effect for India: a country that itself remains on the World Health Organization’s Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List — designating nations already facing critical workforce shortages.
Country-Specific Highlights
- In the United Kingdom, there were 17,250 Indian-trained doctors, which represented 23 % of all foreign-trained doctors in the NHS system.
- In the United States, around 16,800 India-trained doctors were recorded, making up approximately 8 % of the foreign-trained doctor workforce.
- For nurses, India-trained professionals also had a strong presence: for example, 55,000 in the U.S., 7,000 in Canada and around 8,000 in Australia.
What This Means for India and the World
For advanced economies, Indian-origin health professionals are helping fill critical gaps and keeping care delivery intact. For India, this reflects the global competitiveness of its health-care workforce — but also underscores the challenge of retaining talent at home.
Policymakers must confront dual imperatives: ensuring that destination countries have effective integration and recognition frameworks for migrant health-care professionals, and boosting domestic health-workforce capacities in origin countries like India. The report suggests that delays in licensing and recognition of foreign-trained professionals persist, which undermines the full benefit of migration.
Conclusion
The OECD’s findings shine a spotlight on the global interdependence of health-care systems. Indian doctors and nurses have emerged not just as contributors but as foundational to many developed nations’ health-care delivery. The benefits are clear — yet the challenges remain: retention of talent in India, ensuring fair migration processes, and balancing global need with national capacity. As the world faces increasing health-care demands, the importance of sustainable, ethically managed health-workforce migration grows ever more vital.
Source: Times of India
