International health workers form the vital, beating heart of the NHS, a service whose skills and expertise have been built across many nations. Yet for thousands of these clinicians, their commitment to care extends far beyond UK shores, sustaining fragile health systems in their countries of origin at a time when traditional support is faltering.
This dual reality is embodied by professionals like Dr Jacqueline Bamfo, an NHS consultant obstetrician and president of the Ghanaian Doctors and Dentists Association UK (GDDDA UK). Every day, she navigates the intersection between treating patients in the UK and working to strengthen healthcare in Ghana, a perspective that reveals the shifting foundations of global health.
Through diaspora networks like the GDDDA UK, clinicians contribute time, skills and resources directly, working in partnership with local institutions. Dr Bamfo’s own work includes virtual teaching with colleagues at the University of Ghana Medical Centre, with plans for hands-on training later this year—a direct, two-way exchange of knowledge. This forms part of a broader pattern of contribution, from clinicians stepping up during the Covid-19 pandemic to delivering health outreach within UK-based Ghanaian communities, effectively bridging care across continents.
Diaspora initiatives fill gaps as aid budgets shrink
This diaspora-led work has assumed a critical new importance against a troubling backdrop of receding international aid. Recent UK government allocations confirm a seismic shift, with UK bilateral aid to Africa set to fall by 56%. The effects of such cuts are already being felt in countries like Ghana, manifesting in fewer outreach services, stretched training programmes and intensified pressure on local healthcare workers.
In this climate, the contributions of diaspora networks become a vital lifeline. While they cannot replace structured government investment, they uniquely bring together funding, specialised skills and trusted, pre-existing networks to help sustain care as other support falls away. From sending money home to families to coordinating specialist clinical training, these efforts are actively sustaining health system capacity.
Dr Bamfo recently witnessed the urgent need for better maternal care in Ghanaian hospitals, where access to timely scanning can be a matter of life and death. Her response, through a diaspora network, exemplifies a model that is locally engaged and directly responsive—a stark contrast to dwindling centralised aid programmes.
A call for partnership, not just contribution
This work is not peripheral; it is presented as the blueprint for modern health partnerships. It signals a necessary shift from top-down, aid-dependent models to approaches that are led and shaped locally, with diaspora groups acting as inherent partners. Their deep, lived experience of both the NHS and the health systems they support positions them uniquely to direct effective cooperation.
The conversation around this new model is set for a global stage in May, when the UK hosts the Global Partnerships Conference. Governments and civil society will meet to consider the future of development cooperation. Dr Bamfo and allied networks argue that for this discussion to be meaningful, it must be led by those with lived experience, including diaspora representatives, ensuring they have a real say in how decisions are made and resources are directed.
Organisations like the GDDDA UK, a member of the Action for Global Health network, are already doing the foundational work—building relationships, caring for patients and strengthening services in often-overlooked ways. The pressing question now is whether this reality will be formally recognised, and whether diaspora groups will be treated as essential partners in building a more just and sustainable future for global health, rather than as temporary fixes or mere contributors. From the front lines of the NHS and Ghana’s hospitals, the message is that such partnership is not optional, but essential, and must be shaped by those already bridging the gap.