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Alliance News Digest

Week of 10 September 2010

NEWS FROM WHO AND PARTNERS

• Increasing access to health workers in remote and rural areas through improved retention – WHO. (August 2010)
  Global policy recommendations
• More than a Game: Using Football to Gain Traction on Health Issues in Uganda – UNFPA. (9/7)
  Health care workers were on hand to answer questions and provide health counseling
• Brazil's march towards universal coverage – WHO. (September 2010)
  Family Health Programme employs more than 30 000 teams of health-care workers who make concerted efforts to reach the country's poor and isolated communities.
• New UNICEF study shows MDGs for children can be reached faster with focus on most disadvantaged – UNICEF. (9/7)
  UNICEF highlights alarming evidence of growing disparities in the lives of children across a wide range of indicators

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• Policy to increase rural health – Health24, SA. (9/8)
  Global policy recommendations to increase access to health workers in remote and rural areas were announced by the health department.
• KENYA: Camel clinics bring condoms to nomads – UN IRIN. (8/31)
  The Nomadic Communities Trust started using camels to reach the Samburu people with mobile clinics in 2006
• Nurse's Assault Saddens Health Workers' Union – Times of Zambia. (9/2)
  A nurse at Kitwe Central Hospital was assaulted by a parent who had taken his child to the hospital for medical care.
• Somalia Highlight: Mogadishu conflict – ReliefWeb. (9/3)
  With the ongoing conflict in Mogadishu, health workers are facing security constraints
• MOH to post more doctors to Wa Regional Hospital – Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. (9/6)
  Interview MoH with Radio Ghana.
• SWAZILAND: Task-shifting could improve HIV treatment and prevention – UN IRIN. (9/3)
  Swaziland has yet to act on a 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation to alleviate health worker shortages
• Poverty holds back growth plan – Daily Nation, Kenya. (9/6)
  Though absolute poor declined to 46 per cent, more resources are needed to boost health
• Doctors, other medical staff may suspend strike in Delta – Nigerian Tribune. (9/7)
  There are strong indications that the strike by medical and health workers in Delta State will be called off in a few days’ time
• Health workers urged to work hard to ensure quality health care – Ghana Web. (9/6)
  GHS urged health workers to work hard to ensure quality health care delivery in Ghana.
• Training of Community Leaders in Virtual Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (MTCT) in Bugesera District – CNLS, Rwanda. (9/5)
  The main goal of this training is to increase community ownership and capacity to promote and/or carry out sessions of HIV prevention

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• Pay hike for barangay health workers pushed – Manila Bulletin. (9/4)
  Barangay health workers, the weak link in the entire chain of health care delivery system, need increased financial help and insurance coverage
• DOH suspends seminars for dengue patients - Philippine Daily Inquirer. (9/7)
  Training among government doctors and local health workers has been suspended to care for patients suffering from dengue
• Health ministry asked to fix salary of health workers – Pakistan Observer. (9/8)
  Lady health workers were getting less than Rs5,000 salary, though they work 12 hours a day.
• China needs to upgrade health care infrastructure: researcher – Xinhua News, China. (9/10)
  China needs to upgrade its health care infrastructure, or it will be a stumbling block on the country's path to development
• Polluted water biggest risk to health – medic – Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand. (9/7)
  Health Minister Tony Ryall said Canterbury health workers had put patients' needs before their own after the earthquake
• Casey health workers Himalayas bound – Leader News, Australia. (9/6)
  16 volunteers will travel to the Himalayas to establish a medical clinic in Nangi, Annapurna
• Non-Governmental Organizations At UN Conference In Australia – Voxy, New Zealand. (8/31)
  NGOs can do so much, but with MDG 5 (maternal health), they cannot do that much without help.
• Politics is killing the world's children – Sydney Morning Herald. (9/2)
  The tragic, preventable deaths of 9 million children every year is one of the world's largest problems

NORTH AMERICA

• In Medical School Shift, Meeting Patients on Day 1 – New York Times. (9/3)
  Many medical schools have experimented with providing earlier clinical experience, and such efforts may be gaining traction because of incentives to promote primary care in federal health-care reform
• 500,000 Pregnant Women at Risk in Pakistan Floods – Inter Press Service – (9/2)
  According to WHO approximately 500,000 flood-affected pregnant women are currently in their second or third trimesters
• Physicians use photos from patients' cellphones to deliver 'mobile health' – Washington Post. (8/31)
  MHealth is an emerging field within telemedicine that comprises all aspects of care
• A Summary of the February 2010 Forum on the Future of Nursing: Education – National Academies Press.(August 2010)
  The education system needs to ensure that there is adequate capacity to educate the right number of nurses across all levels
• Infant feeding counselling in Uganda in a changing environment with focus on the general population and HIV-positive mothers - a mixed method approach – 7th Space Interactive. (9/6)
  Health workers'counselling practices are essential to improve infant feeding practices
• South Africa Unions’ Strike Suspended – New York Times. (9/6)
  South Africa’s trade unions Monday suspended an almost three-week-old strike by hundreds of thousands of government workers
• How to Deal with the Physician Shortage – MD News. (9/7)
  The physician shortage is not going away any time soon, so what can be done in the meantime? Here is what the literature has to say
• Polluted waterways and physician shortages – CMAJ, Canada. (9/7)
  A single doctor serves West Point’s residents downtown Monrovia, Liberia. But that doctor is also responsible for two other clinics elsewhere in the city
• More Philadelphia-area health systems requiring employees to get flu shots – Philadelphia Inquirer. (9/6)
  Proponents of mandatory vaccination argue that health workers have a responsibility to protect patients
• UNICEF Shifts Gears to Target Poorest of Children – Inter Press Service. (9/7)
  A greater focus on the poorest of poor children and increased support for community-based initiatives like training rural health workers

EUROPE

• A taste of cuts to come? – Morning Star, UK. (9/6)
  Review of different governments public health budgets cuts and effects..
• Uganda steps up efforts to boost male circumcision – The Lancet, UK. (9/4)
  WHO, UNAIDS, PEPFAR and Centers for Disease Control are assisting with the training of surgeons, nurses, and other health personnel
• German health reform compromise under attack – The Lancet, UK. (9/4)
  The German coalition government pledged sweeping reforms to the health system to avert a projected €11 billion deficit
• Salaire des infirmiers en Europe : la France est-elle bien placée ? – ActuSoins, France. (8/6)
  Uniformisation des diplômes aidant, tout infirmier européen est libre de travailler dans l’état de la communauté de son choi
• MUMN and Health Ministry at loggerheads on nursing shortage – Malta Independent. (9/7)
  The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses and the Health Ministry are at loggerheads on the nursing shortage hitting Maltese hospitals.
• Nurse retirement could create staff crisis – Nursing Times, UK. (9/7)
  London and the South East of England could be facing a serious nursing and midwife shortage over the next seven years
• 'Crisis' claimed at Limerick hospital – Irish Times. (9/7)
  Overcrowding, shortage of nursing staff and the unsafe clinical environment are a major cause of concern
• New Government Must Move Forward On Health Reform, Australia – Medical News Today, UK. (9/8)
  The AMA has campaigned strongly for a greater focus on rural health and Indigenous health
• India not treating AIDS patients early: Global Fund – Reuters. (9/9)
  India is urged to spend more from its budget on healthcare and improve its healthcare system domestically

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• Health Workers in Las Tunas Cut Imports with Local Efforts – Periódico 26, Cuba. (9/5)
  Professionals and workers with the center meet the main task of providing technical services and maintain the equipment in local health units in operation.
• Flexibilizan el ingreso a Enfermería – Nueva Provincia, Argentina. (9/4)
  Se dejará sin efecto una exigente prueba de ingreso y sólo se solicitará un curso introductorio de un mes
• Hospital espera solución – Correo, Peru. (9/2)
  La crisis que vive el Hospital Regional Honorio Delgado por la falta de personal médico, enfermeras, técnicos y auxiliares, continúa afectando a los cientos de pacientes
• Sindicato de Salud solicita pagos pendientes – El Tiempo, Venezuela. (9/8)
  Se calculó que hacen falta al menos 300 camas para el centro asistencial, así como 400 enfermeras, enfermeros y médicos especialistas

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