Estimating health workforce needs for antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings

Table 11 Range in estimates of physicians, nurses and pharmacists to care for 1000 patients on ART from existing programmes*

Data source	Physicians		Nurses		Pharmacists/pharmacy technicians
	Range (mean) patients/FTE	Range (mean) FTE to treat 1000 on ART	Range (mean) patients/FTE	Range (mean) FTE to treat 1000 on ART	Range (mean) patients/FTE	Range (mean) FTE to treat 1000 on ART
WHO site visits
Africa	105–5500 (1030)	0.18–9.5 (0.97)	10–333 (141)	3–100 (7)	105–100** (588)	.91–9.5** (1.7)
Asia	217–1007 (675)	0.99–4.6 (1.48)	458–533 (486)	1.9–2.2 (2.1)	935–1678 (1306)	.59–1.1 (.77)
ATSAP survey***	250–833 (525)	1.2–4 (1.9)	25–1000 (412)	1–20 (2.4)	45–833 (329)	1.2–9.5 (3.0)
Country plans estimate⁺
Year 1	88–534	1.9–11.4	112	8.9	558–629	1.6–1.8
Year 5	180–2820	0.35–5.6	126	7.9	623–2169	0.46–1.6

*site with low numbers of patients on ART (<150) reported highest staff to patient ratios.
**2 sites reported very high ratios of MDs to patients.
***sites reporting both MDs and medical and clinical officers had ratios of prescribing and evaluation clinicians as low as 70–286.
⁺ Plans includes use of other cadres eligible to prescribe other medical doctors. Means could not be calculated based on data available

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