Nurses on the run: Pakistan’s healthcare system bleeds talent

Dubai: Pakistan is grappling with a deepening healthcare crisis as an alarming number of nurses continue to leave the country in search of better pay, safer working conditions, and professional growth overseas, leaving behind an already strained medical system teetering on collapse.

Foreign countries, especially Gulf nations, the UK, and Canada, are attracting Pakistan’s trained nurses with competitive salaries and superior working environments. This exodus is not just a career move for the nurses, it is a lifeline. But at the same time this trend is draining Pakistan of essential healthcare workers.

According to the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment, nurses accounted for 5.8% of Pakistan’s highly educated workforce that emigrated in 2024. The country, which needs around 700,000 nurses to meet demand, had only 116,659 registered as of 2020, a staggering shortfall for a population of over 240 million.

Critical gap

“The situation is dire. Despite a rise in private sector nursing schools, the Pakistan Nursing Council continues to limit student quotas, slowing down efforts to fill this critical gap. The irony is that these trained professionals are eventually earning foreign exchange for Pakistan yet support for nursing education remains inadequate,” said the head of a private nursing college.

Data shows that from 2019 to 2024, the number of Pakistani nurses registered abroad grew at an alarming compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 54.2%. Globally, about 15% of nurses from developing countries migrate to developed nations each year, a trend now sharply mirrored in Pakistan.

The nurse-to-doctor ratio is also abysmally low. The World Health Organisation recommends three nurses per doctor. In Pakistan, it is just 0.5 per doctor, one of the lowest in the region.

Healthcare on the brink

A recent Senate Standing Committee on Health meeting painted a grim picture: Pakistan faces a shortage of over one million nurses, and nearly 30,000 to 40,000 registered doctors are not practicing at all.

The committee, chaired by Senator Amir Waliuddin Chishti, also raised concerns about “ghost colleges,” outdated certifications, and deteriorating hospital infrastructure. “Even hospitals like the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) need urgent overhauls,” the committee members said.

While some relief projects including a proposed Rs7.4 billion upgrade to public health infrastructure and feasibility studies for a medical research tower in Islamabad were discussed, experts argue that without immediate reforms in nurse recruitment, training, and retention, such efforts will fall short.

Addressing the shortfall

Punjab's Director General of Nursing, Kausar Parveen, said that the number of nurses in the province was low, but the government had taken steps to address the shortfall. The government has taken measures in collaboration with the University of Health Sciences and both public and private institutions, the Express Tribune reported.

The shortfall of about 3,000 nurses has already been addressed. Currently, around 44 institutions are offering nursing education across the province," said Parveen.

No end in sight

In 2024 alone, 727,381 professionals left Pakistan, and in the first six months of 2025, over 336,442 have already emigrated. Officials admit that many nurses leave through private arrangements, meaning official data may not even capture the full scale of the crisis.

Healthcare leaders are now urging urgent policy changes to plug the nursing drain, including:

• Expanding quotas for nursing students

• Offering retention incentives

• Improving work environments in public hospitals