Subnavigation

• Global Health Workforce Alliance
• About the Alliance
• Members & partners
• Country responses
• Knowledge centre
• Media centre
• Forums

Alliance News Digest

Information

WEEK OF 4 December 2009

News related to/from the Global Health Workforce Alliance

• Alliance members call for Human Resources for Health to become a unifying theme for global health – The Alliance. (11/23)
  Alliance advocates and communicators would like to keep learning from each other and working together to achieve common objectives
  
  

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• Health workers prone to fatigue - Daily News, Botswana. (11/30)
  Health workers suffer of chronic stress and fatigue problems mainly due to shortage of health personnel country wide
  

• Abyei pays health workers two months’ salary - Sudan Tribune. (11/29)
  Health workerswill soon go on another strike for other remaining five months salary payment
  

• Strike: FG, health workers set up joint committee - The Punch, Nigeria. (12/1)
  Federal Government in Abuja met with leaders of unions in the health sector to avert a nationwide strike
  

• First lady calls for intensive education - Peace FM Online, Ghana. (11/26)
  Strategy for achieving the 2015 goals of maternal health must be addressed.
  

• Government called upon to provide housing accommodation to health sector - The Independent, Uganda. (12/1)
  HWAF-U blamed government for the poor numbers of health providers in the health sector on lack of accommodation
  

• GHANA: Cell phones cut maternal deaths - IRIN-Africa. (12/1)
  Half of women in Ghana give birth at home with no skilled health worker present
  

• Young Emiratis will be shot in the arm for health care - The National, UAE. (12/1)
  Strengthening the education opportunities is a vital part of the push to attract more Emiratis into health care.
  
  

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• Poor first aid training costs lives - Viet Nam News. (11/26)
  WHO is working with the ministry to develop a standardised pre-hospital trauma care training programme for health workers, volunteers and village health workers
  

• Government preparing bill to lure doctors to regions - Jakarta Post. (11/30)
  bill to will provide incentives to health workers willing to be stationed in remote regions
  

• A health centre in need of care - Times of India. (11/27)
  "We are facing shortage of BHW and presently are not in a position to deploy one male health worker at each sub-centre.
  

• Public doctors get green light to work at private hospitals - Thanhnien News, Viet Nam. (11/27)
  This move will help alleviate the great demand of treatment mainly due to the shortage of health personnel.
  

• Coming up: 267 nursing schools in next 2 years - Daily News & Analysis, India. (11/25)
  Faced with a shortage of nurses in India, the government is planning to open 267 nursing institutes
  

• PAKISTAN: IDPs hit by female health worker shortage - IRIN-Asia. (12/2)
  Insecurity in many parts of northwestern Pakistan is making women health workers think twice about trying to access IDPs.
  

• Minister compromises on solo mum study loans - New Zealand Herald. (12/2)
  The no-interest $500 loan would be available to those studying in areas where there was a shortage of workers - nurses, doctors, midwives, vets and teachers
  

• Aus, NZ dependent on Pacific's workforce - Fiji Times. (11/27)
  Australia has 1249 Fiji-born nurses and midwives and New Zealand had 579; the total – 1828.
  

• Victoria Improves Aboriginal Health Care Services- Government of Victoria, Australia. (11/26)
  $8.6 million funding would support increased midwifery services and ensure healthcare workers are more responsive to the needs of Aboriginal Victorians
  

• New rules threaten overseas doctors - The Australian. (11/27)
  Recruiters nationwide step up efforts to find more overseas doctors to fill the medical workforce shortfall
  

NORTH AMERICA

• Don’t confuse health policy with military in Afghanistan - Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (12/1)
  The share of health facilities with at least one female health worker has climbed to 83 percent
  

• Medicaid Expansion May Fail Because of Doctors' Refusal to See Patients - BNET. (11/29)
  Doctor shortage is worsening and is likely to be exacerbated by healthcare reform.
  

• In Botswana, Partnerships Make Progress Against HIV/AIDS - Media Newswire. (11/26)
  Partnership is helping provide better health care for Batswana with HIV/AIDS and is helping to reverse the “brain drain” among medical professionals in country.
  

• St. Francis Hospital's Trinity Center for Women opens today - Ledger-Inquirer, GA. (12/1)
  Midwives hope to lower city’s infant mortality rate
  

• The epidemiology workforce: are we planning for the future? - 7th Space Interactive. (11/29)
  In Australia that there is a substantial shortage in epidemiological capacity within the health workforce and health research
  

• A Convenient Truth - Psychiatric Services. (December)
  people with behavioral disorders have medical needs that are often overlooked.
  

• State losing 600 mental health workers - Daily News Transcript, Mass. (12/1)
  The state will lay off more than 300 mental health workers due to budget cuts.
  

• Health workers back job action - The Star Phoenix, Canada. (12/2)
  Saskatchewan health-care workers voted in favour of job action to back their position in negotiations over a new contract.
  

• Pénurie d’infirmières: Le Cégep offrira un DEC en Soins infirmiers à La Sarre - La Frontière, Canada. (11/30)
  «Il y a une pénurie d’infirmières et il s’agit d’une solution pour pallier au problème», soutient le conseiller au CAT.
  
  

EUROPE

• Paid birth assistants or doulas 'jeopardise care' - The Telegraph, UK. (12/2)
  Paid birth assistants known as doulas are untrained and can jeopardise care of women in labour, a doctor has warned in the BMJ
  

• Height of care - Irish Times. (12/1)
  A flying doctors service is al being supported in Lesotho to ensure serious cases can be flown to lowland hospitals for specialist care.
  

• Healthy visa options for emigrating nurses - Response Source, UK. (11/24)
  High demand for trained nurses in Australia, New Zealand and Canada means they will receive priority processing and a good chance of immediate employment
  

• UK loses out in medical talent war - Recruiter, UK. (11/24)
  The UK needs to raise its game if it isn’t to lose out to other countries in attracting skilled nurses and midwives.
  

• NHS Confederation Comments On Andrew Lansley's Speech To Royal College Of Midwives - Medical News Today, UK. (12/3)
  Safety of mother and child must be paramount in any reform.
  

• BMA manifesto calls for end to 'divisive market' in health - British Medical Association. (12/2)
  Key areas of action for healthcare and public health in uncertain economic times.
  
  

• Eradicate variations in health care, experts say - British Medical Journal, UK. (12/2)
  The NHS should work to reduce unexplained variations in health care to generate cost savings
  

• Botswana: How AIDS almost killed An African Dream - Afrik.com, France. (12/2)
  Despite the enormous advances Botswana has made, the government lacks sufficient medical professionals
  

• Las reducciones de jornada y las bajas amenazan con desbordar Osakidetza - Correo de Vizcaya, Spain. (11/27)
  Sólo para igualar la media europea, que fija en ocho las enfermeras por cada mil habitantes, haría falta contratar más de 3.000 profesionales. ...
  

• Médicos recebem mais 750 euros para trabalhar no interior - DN Portugal. (11/25)
  Para tal terão de comprometer-se a ficar nos hospitais e centros de saúde com carência de profissionais pelo mesmo tempo que dura a formação
  
  

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• Faltan más de 200 médicos en Bolívar - Correo del Caroní, Venezuela. (11/30)
  Ambulatorios sin médicos y especialistas es una situación que tiende a consolidarse en el estado Bolívar
  

• Lei dá seis meses para revalidação de diploma - Agência Amazônia de Notícias, Brazil. (11/27)
  Diminui burocracia que emperrava o reconhecimento de médicos, dentistas e pesquisadores
  

• El 75% de paraguayos no tiene seguro médico - Última Hora, Paraguay. (11/27)
  La falta de seguros más la carencia de medicinas y personal médicos son problemas serios para la población.
  

• Assistência em Sinop vistoriada - Diário de Cuiabá, Brazil. (12/1)
  Na vistoria, que acontece hoje, uma das carências mais graves da saúde no Estado
  

• R$ 10 milhões em investimentos melhoram os serviços no Hospital Ophir Loyola - Agência Pará de Notícias, Brazil. (11/30)
  Rreadequações nas estruturas física e organizacional do HOL, e deve ser implantado no primeiro semestre do próximo ano
  

News from WHO and partners

• National trends in the United States of America physician assistant workforce from 1980 to 2007. HRH Journal - (11/26)
  PA profession is a nationally recognized medical profession in USA. However, relatively little is known regarding national trends of the PA workforce.
  

• Trading Disgrace for Dignity: The Fight against Fistula - AMREF. (12/2)
  ‘If fistula was a condition affecting men, would it have taken us this long to do something about it?” Chairperson, Flying Doctors’ Society of Africa
  

• Myanmar (Burma): Greater funding needed to meet most critical needs - Merlin, UK. (11/30)
  Eighteen months after Cyclone Nargis devastated communities in the Irrawaddy Delta, there are critical needs that still haven’t been addressed.
  

• World AIDS Day: Protecting youth in Liberia - Merlin, UK. (12/1)
  Meet Pauline, a Nurse Counsellor at a Merlin-supported youth centre in Monrovia, Liberia