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Alliance News Digest

Information

WEEK OF 04 SEPTEMBER 2009

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News from the Global Health Workforce Alliance

• COUNTRY COLLABORATION FRAMEWORK (DRAFT) - The Alliance
  You will find below a draft version of the document. Members and Partners are especially invited to provide the Secretariat with their inputs and recommendations.
  
  

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• SOUTH AFRICA: Treatment crisis in Free State, again - IRIN, SA
  Free State Province is again experiencing a crisis in the delivery of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, with understaffed clinics, erratic drug supplies and long waiting lists preventing many dangerously ill patients from accessing the life-prolonging drugs.
  

• Bringing Men on Board to Reduce Maternal and Child Mortality - IPS, Swaziland
  Swazi men have very little involvement in caring for newborns and mothers, yet they are critical partners in ensuring their well being.
  

• Mildmay Passes Out HIV/Aids Counsellors - The Monitor, Uganda
  A total of 24 students have been awarded diplomas in HIV/Aids care and management. The group was trained by Mildmay Centre under their short course training programme.
  

• Garantida construção de escola e posto médico na Beira Alta - Angola Press, Angola
  O administrador adjunto do município de Kambambe, anunciou a construção, pelo Governo, de uma escola primária e um posto médico na localidade da Beira Alta.
  

• US Set To Revive Zimbabwe's Ailing Health Sector - Radiovop, Zimbabwe
  The US Government is optimistic about the rejuvenation of Zimbabwe’s health sector and has goals of supporting efforts to increase service delivery capacity and create sustainable health care systems.
  

• Mulago Petitions Dumba's Arrest - New Vision, Uganda
  The petition signed by 104 staff members called for a public condemnation of the act to ensure that health workers, while on duty, should never be arrested in such a manner.
  

• Health sector needs remedy – MEC - The Sowetan, SA
  Limpopo MEC for health and social development Miriam Segabutla is concerned about the deteriorating status of health facilities and the massive social development challenges facing the province
  

• Yakubu Gowon Foundation Fights Malaria in Yobe - Daily Trust, Nigeria
  137,000 doses of ACT anti malaria drugs donated by the Yakubu Gowon Foundation have been distributed to 170 health centres in all the 17 local government areas of the state as part of efforts to control maternal and child mortality.
  

• Maternal Mortality, a Rural Community’s Example - IPS, Nigeria
  Maternal and infant mortality, especially in rural areas, is the result mainly of lack of health facilities, and where there are such facilities, poor management of them and the people’s suspicious attitude to healthcare delivery.
  
  

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• Nurses bonus 'useless without change' - ABC News, Australia
  Doctors say if the Government wants to succeed in bringing nurses and other health professionals back to work, it has to find out why they left in the first place.
  

• Public hospital docs stay put - The Standard, Hong Kong
  Doctors are staying put in their Hospital Authority jobs amid the financial crisis, easing the brain drain somewhat, authority figures show.
  

• 'Occupational health centres badly needed' - The Nation, China
  The Public Health Ministry has called on the government to set up occupational health institutes to undertake scientific research and provide better treatment for workers suffering serious illnesses caused by severe accidents or chemical poisoning at work
  

• Doctors warn of private takeover - Stuff.co, New Zealand
  Senior doctors fear a silent private takeover after the Government scrapped a requirement to consult frontline workers before contracting out health services.
  

• Medicare 'failure' under fire - The Brisbane Times, Australia
  Expanded community health services to plug gaps for those not covered by Medicare are foreshadowed in Australia's first primary health care strategy.
  

• Sacked,176 health workers take to streets - ExpressIndia.com, India
  The cancellation of job contracts of 176 multi-purpose health workers (women) prompted them to hold a protest at the Civil Surgeon office in the city.
  

• Bulging boards to slash red tape - The Australian Online, Australia
  Australia’shealth ministers have created 10 new boards and appointed 108 new board members in a single day to help manage a health worker registration scheme that promised to cut red tape.
  

• TB on rise in absence of health workers - My Republic, Nepal
  The number of tuberculosis patients is on the rise in Nawalparasi district as people cannot take medication due to the unavailability of health workers at the health posts.
  

NORTH AMERICA

• C’mon health workers, get your swine flu shots - MSNBC.com
  In a nation where less than half of all health care providers get annual flu shots, despite intense campaigns to convince them, infection control officials say the refusal to be immunized against the novel H1N1 influenza virus could increase spread of the disease and stress an already overwhelmed medical system.
  

• Patients Get Power of Fast Response - The Wall Street Journal
  New patient-safety law in the state, is one of a number of incidents that have led a growing number of hospitals to give patients and families the power to demand immediate attention from experienced medical staff when they fear a worsening condition.
  

• Lack of paid sick days compounds flu problem - The Frenso Bee
  Health officials are urging businesses to keep sick employees home this fall to control the spread of swine flu. But for many workers, a sick day is a day without wages. So they’re still showing up for work, exposing others to the highly contagious flu strain.
  

• VillageReach fuels change in global health delivery - The Seattle Times
  VillageReach has figured how to get health care into the heart of remote communities that others haven't managed to reach - the so-called "last mile" - and pay for it with a for-profit energy business.
  

• H1N1 guidelines on way to health workers from feds - Canada.com
  Frontline health-care workers can expect new guidelines from the federal government in the coming weeks on how to cope with the expected second wave of the swine flu pandemic.
  

• Community College attacks people shortages in medical technology careers - Examiner.com
  Northern Virginia near Washington represents a macrocosm of a final category of medical personnel shortfalls that is actually nationwide
  
  

EUROPE

• Rasi Quells Fear of Job Losses for 70 Emergency Health Workers - TASR, Slovakia
  First-aid workers with the unsuccessful candidates in the first round of tender to provide emergency medical services won't lose their jobs, as there is demand for their services in the healthcare system.
  

• Novices do nurses’ job after week’s training - The Times Online, UK
  HEALTHCARE assistants in the National Health Service with as little as one week’s training are performing technical nursing tasks on patients, including heart tests, blood checks and changing dripfeeding bags.
  

• L'intérim pour pallier la pénurie de personnels soignants - MaVille.com, Monaco
  la Principauté, qui n'échappe pas à cette tendance, doit fait face elle aussi à un réel besoin en infirmiers, aides soignants, auxiliaires de vie ou encore préparateurs en pharmacie.
  

• Escassez de vagas nas universidades criou problema de falta de médicos - Diario de Noticias, Portugal
  Nos últimos anos, o número de vagas nas universidades aumentou: este ano foi de 1614 vagas, mais 151 do que no ano anterior .
  

• El Valedor do Pobo investiga la falta de medios de las urgencias del Xeral - La Voz de Galicia, Spain
  Las enfermeras alertaron de que la escasez de recursos supone «un grave riesgo para la salud de los pacientes»
  

• Clinical officers and nurses make similar decisions to physicians on starting antiretroviral therapy in rural Uganda - AIDSMAP, UK
  An analysis of decision-making by non-specialist physicians, clinical officers and nurses in Uganda has found that there is a high level of agreement in decisions on starting antiretroviral therapy.
  

• Rising cost of care in rich countries is driving patients to seek treatment in developing nations - British Medical Journal, UK
  Medical tourism" is forecast to expand rapidly in the next few years, triggered by rising healthcare costs in wealthy nations.
  

• Applying quality improvement approaches to health care - British Medical Journal, UK
  The health sector could learn much from industry People who work in the health system can be resistant to learning from other sectors. But some challenges are common to all sectors, and it would be wasteful to ignore transferable solutions.
  
  

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• Alta matrícula en Universidad Médica villaclareña - CMHW, Cuba
  La Universidad Médica Serafín Ruiz de Zarate, de Villa Clara, inicia el próximo curso escolar con una matrícula cercana a los 13 mil estudiantes, entre las más altas de su historia.
  

• Health Workers Wrap-Up Training Aimed at Finalising STEPS Report - Platimum News Online, Virgin Islands
  This week the Ministry of Health and Social Development wrapped-up a training programme that will help to finalise the report of the STEPS Risk Factor Survey that began in February.
  

• Contratan especialistas para atender emergencia quirúrgica en "Santaella" - Entorno Intenlgente, Venezuela
  Para solventar el déficit de médicos en algunas especialidades del centro de salud altomirandino, por lo que han previsto contratar especialistas para los turnos quirúrgicos, especialmente, los fines de semanas.
  

• Tras 4 años de carrera aún no hay egresados en las Escuelas de Enfermería de Chubut - El Diario de Madryn, Argentina (9/1) 
  En el día a día, en el cuidado primario de las personas enfermas, controlando, atentas y solícitas, ahí están las enfermeras.
  

• Por la Gripe A y el dengue emergieron otros problemas sanitarios - Misiones Online, Argentina
  La desigual distribución geográfica de los médicos y el déficit de enfermeras se notó durante la pandemia. Mientras la Ciudad de Buenos Aires tiene un médico cada 30 habitantes, en el Chaco -epicentro del dengue- hay apenas uno cada 1.000 personas. En Misiones hay uno cada 800.
  

• El purgatorio queda en la Morgue - TalQualDigital, Venezuela
  Muy peligroso como sitio de trabajo, son los fines de semanas cuando la morgue recuerda a los caraqueños de las insuficiencias estructurales y de las carencias de personal y de equipos con la que se labora allí.
  

• 'Health workers must do more for child care' - Trinidad & Tobago Express
  More needed to be done to improve the quality of health care services offered to children in Trinidad and Tobago.
  

• Servicios de salud, principal demanda entre pensionados norteamericanos -GenteBien.com, Mexico
  Pensionados estadounidenses que radican en Jalisco coinciden en una demanda de personal, para empleos que van desde médicos geriatras hasta quién se dedique a escucharlos.
  
  

News from WHO and partners

• Global Conference to Rejuvenate Conversation on Status of Women's Health and Rights - UNFPA
  More than 400 delegates from around the world are scheduled to gather this week for a new conversation assessing 15 years of work towards better sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights for women in developing countries.
  

• Rwanda leading the way in jointly tackling TB and HIV - Stop TB Partnership
  Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy to Stop TB and UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé together witnessed, first-hand, delivery of integrated HIV and TB services during a visit to the Socio-Medical Centre in Biryogo
  

• Canada Increases Support to Health Programs in Paraguay - CIDA
  Canada will increase support to the Pan American Health Organization's (PAHO) program for the prevention and control of priority communicable diseases.
  

• Working with Religious Leaders, Families and Communities to Improve Maternal Health and End Gender-based Violence - UNFPA
  50 religious leaders and FBOs from Europe and Central Asia gathering this week were confronted with the grim fact that every minute, one woman dies giving birth and 20 more suffer injury, infection or disease, despite the fact that 80 per cent of all maternal deaths are preventable.
  

• Revitalizing community mobilization for universal access in West and Central Africa - UNAIDS
  Thirty civil society organizations involved in the HIV response in West and Central Africa identified six priority areas for action to accelerate the movement towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support in the region.