The retirement age of physicians and other health professionals provides important information for workforce planning; after all, the projections of the future outflow of health professionals are based on the retirement age of health professionals in the past.
The number of health professionals available is calculated using several data, including the number of health professionals in the baseline year (element 1) and the outflow of health professionals in the intervening years (element 8).
It is much more difficult to obtain data on the outflow of health professionals from source countries.
While there is international concern at the increasing outflow of health professionals from developing countries, for individuals and families an improved standard of living through the receipt of remittances is likely to be of more direct importance [ 28].
There are several factors that influence the future supply of health professionals : the present and future number of health professionals in stock (male/female), the amount of full-time equivalent (FTE) they work (present and future), the inflow from training, the inflow from abroad and the outflow of health professionals.
On the supply side of the model (the upper part of Figure 1), the outflow of health professionals in the period between the baseline year and the target year is an important predictor of the future number of health professionals available in year T + X.
These case studies were conducted to ascertain the current outflow of health professionals to the United Kingdom and to other countries, in order to assess the relative significance of the United Kingdom as a destination for health professionals and to assess the "visibility" of the DH Code as a policy instrument in the health workforce policy and planning context in these countries.
Actions taken by the South African government to address staff shortages in rural areas include bilateral agreements with countries to mitigate the outflow of SA health professionals or facilitate the inflow of foreign health professionals to rural areas, community service for graduating health professionals, salary increases via the Occupational Specific Dispensation and rural allowances [ 11].
According to these classification frameworks, the model used in the Netherlands can best be classified as a demand-based model, as the planning of the workforce is not only derived from the inflows and outflows of health professionals, but also by projecting the future demand for a certain occupational group (for example, GPs).
Policy-makers wishing to decrease the outflow of health care professionals from developing countries would then have to focus their attention on demand side policies.
