A leading children’s charity demanded that the British government compensate African countries for providing trained staff for its state healthcare system.

The situation was contributing to the collapse of healthcare systems in developing nations, a report for Save the Children said.

The government must act as poor countries - particularly from sub-Saharan Africa - were subsidising Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), the report said.

Two-thirds of new doctors and around half of new nurses working in the NHS originate from abroad, it added.

“Urgent action to compensate poor countries should be complemented by plans to prevent staffing shortfalls by producing more health professionals in the UK (United Kingdom),” the report concluded.

The report - Whose Charity? Africa’s aid to the NHS - focused on Ghana, where one in 10 children died before the age of five.

Between 1999 and 2004 the number of doctors registered in Britain and trained in Ghana doubled from 143 to 293, it said.

It estimated that over half of doctors trained in Ghana had migrated for improved pay, training and working conditions.

The British government has saved an estimated 65 million pounds (94 million euros, 124 million dollars) in training costs by recruiting nurses and doctors trained in Ghana alone, with services delivered by these workers valued at 39 million pounds per year, the report said.

That must not be allowed to continue, the Britain-based charity warned.

“It is shameful that many poor countries are spending millions of pounds training nurses and doctors to prop up the UK’s National Health Service,” said Save the Children director general Mike Aaronson.

“Many African countries suffer severe poverty and have limited funds available for basic services like education and health.”

The developing world’s healthcare systems were already struggling to cope with the HIV /AIDS crisis, high rates of child mortality, malnutrition, disease and poverty, the report said.

Save the Children did not, however, want a ban on health workers from poorer countries migrating to Britain as this would infringe their right to freedom of movement, it said.

The report was commissioned by international health charity Medcast and funded by Save the Children and the British Medical Association - the professional association for British doctors.

Meanwhile British health workers union Unison hit out at the government over the situation.

“There is a global shortage of nurses and it is time for the UK to face up to its responsibilities as one of the richest nations in the world, and stop taking and start training,” Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said.

Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government came to power in 1997 pledging to increase spending to the free-to-all service and has since invested billions of pounds in Britain’s NHS.

Further investment in the NHS was set to be a a key political issue in the run-up to a British general election, expected to be held in May.