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Alliance News Digest

Week of 11 March 2011

NEWS FROM WHO AND PARTNERS

• Liberia Launches Ambitious Five-Year Plan to Reduce Maternal and Newborn Deaths – UNFPA - – (3/09)
  Though substantial efforts are being made, Liberia’s maternal mortality ratio remains one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Saving Lives at Birth - World Bank – (3/09)
  Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development, was launched today to seek innovative prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant women and newborns in rural, low-resource settings.
• The 2011 FNIF International Achievement Award goes to Finnish nurse-entrepreneur in nursing education and management – ICN – (2/28)
  The FNIF Board selected Dr Hallila for her outstanding contribution to nursing education and management in many regions of the world.

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• Health could axe medical moonlighting - Independent Online, SA – (3/04)
  The Health Department wants the policy that allows doctors who work in the public health service to also work in the private sector to be scrapped.
• Ngororero Nurses Trained in HIV Treatment - New Times, Rwanda – (3/08)
  The training helps medical personnel and doctors acquire knowledge and skills to treat and advice people living with the virus.
• Jonathan tasks African leaders on HIV/AIDS, TB control - The Guardian, Nigeria – (3/03)
  During the 18th African Region Conference of the IUATLD in Abuja, Jonathan urged the continent’s leaders to adopt policies and legislations to strengthen its poor health systems
• Number of Skilled Health Professionals On the Rise - Shabait.com, Eritrea – (3/07)
  “In Eritrea, 1 doctor treats 20,000 patients, and this is great achievement in the health sector” officer from Ministry of Health says.
• Zambia: Medicine Alliance Fighting Corruption – IPS – (3/07)
  Many poor Zambians are bearing the brunt of the nation's widespread corruption as they fail to access their pensions and essential drugs.
• Pujehun Maternity Hospital Offers Hope to 12,000 Pregnant Women And Babies - Sierra Leone – (3/08)
  The maternity complex, facilitated by UNICEF, is a significant step in contributing to the reduction of maternal deaths and boosting child survival.
• US funding to train 140 000 African healthcare workers - Mail and Guardian, SA – (3/09)
  A new programme, funded largely by the PEPFAR, will provide $130-million in grants to African institutions to strengthen medical education and research training.
• An innovative approach to building capacity at an African university to improve health outcomes– BMC International Health and Human Rights – (3/9) -
  BMC International Health and Human Rights journal supplement on the Makerere-Hopkins Learning Collaborative project.
• Focus on home care for the elderly - Gulf News – (3/09)
  Programme aims to open nursing centres and cut down number of patients in hospitals.
• Premature baby deaths twice as high in Israel as in US - The Jerusalem Post – (3/06)
  There is a large shortage of doctors in the field of premature births, National Medical Association figures released.

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• Rural doctor plan opposed - Bangkok Post – (3/06)
  The Medical Council opposes a Public Health Ministry plan to assign young doctors to remote community hospitals to help fix a doctor shortage
• Nursing homes close doors to many - People Daily, China – (3/02)
  Nearly half of China's nursing homes are refusing elderly people with physical or mental impairments due to shortages of nursing staff and healthcare facilities, a report says
• Injecting Disease With Medicine – IPS – (2/28)
  Almost 80 percent of healthcare in Pakistan is provided by private doctors, many of them unlicensed and unqualified.
• Invest more in female health workers: NGO - The Hindu – (3/07)
  Save the Children, an NGO, has called for greater investment in female health workers as essential to saving mothers' and children's lives.
• Ray of hope in NRS Sunday surprise - The Telegraph, India – (3/07)
  A group of doctors and nurses has broken the tradition of not working on Sundays so patients who can’t come on weekdays for radiotherapy are not denied treatment
• Hospital lack psychiatry services - The Fiji Times – (3/08)
  Hospitals around the country lack mental and psychiatry services despite having a capable workforce.
• Rural India is short of 16,000 doctors - The Economic Times – (3/09)
  While the situation is often attributed to the unwillingness of doctors to work in difficult areas, others say not enough is being done to incentivise such postings.

NORTH AMERICA

• The Health Coach You Know - The New York Times – (3/04)
  Medical programs in various parts of the US are experimenting with using peer groups to help people stick to their treatment plans, and it is working.
• Meeting the Need for Health Workers - Huffington Post – (3/08)
  We are still faced, after a century of International Women's Days, with the challenge of achieving equality, opportunity and fairness for girls and women. .
• China Ramps Up Health Spending, Targets Smokers - Wall Street Journal – (3/06)
  China plans to increase spending on health care by 16.3% this year to roughly $26 billion, as part of a broader goal to improve public health
• Vicious Cycle of Maternal Mortality – IPS – (3/06)
  Maternal mortality stands at about 251 deaths per 100,000 live births worldwide, according to the most recent statistics from the UN
• Pregnancies Don't Wait for Emergencies to End - IPS Terra-Viva – (3/03)
  The UNFPA and Women's Refugee Commission, have launched a newly updated Inter-Agency Field Manual on Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings
• Do-It-Yourself Health Care With Smartphones - The New York Times – (3/01)
  Mobile health apps gain momentum around the globe.
• The Best Investment in Global Women's Health - Huffington Post – (3/08)
  There have been strong policy and funding commitments to bolster access to and support for family planning as vital investments to improve the lives of women and families worldwide.
• Navigating the future - The Vancouver Sun – (3/03)
  As evidence about the benefits of patient navigation grows, health system leaders across Canada are grappling with ways to fund them

EUROPE

• The benefits of recession - The Lancet, UK – (3/05)
  A recession does have at least one advantage, it invites us to be sure that the money we do spend on health is spent wisely.
• Health-financing reforms in southeast Asia: challenges in achieving universal coverage - The Lancet, UK – (3/05)
  Financing health care in most developing countries greatly relies on out-of-pocket payments, with most donors and global health initiatives.
• International Women's Day: Malawi's missing midwives - The Guardian, UK – (3/08)
  In Malawi the risks of women dying in childbirth are among the highest in the world, and local women need to be empowered to press for change.
• Libya rebel town says doctors overwhelmed by wounded – Reuters – (3/07)
  People wounded in fighting in Libyan city of Misrata, are being treated on hospital floors because of a catastrophic shortage of medical facilities
• Women suffer Victorian healthcare standards - Reuters AlertNet – (3/07)
  Each year more than 350,000 women die from preventable complications in pregnancy and childbirth.
• Health crisis looms as cost stops doctor visits - Herald, Ireland – (3/08)
  The country faces a new health crisis as people abandon health insurers in their droves.
• Meet the rainbow warriors of the NHS - London Evening Standard – (3/03)
  "The NHS simply couldn't function effectively without its international workforce" says expert on workforce trends in the health sector.
• Pénurie de médecins : Autopsie d’un scandale - France Soir – (3/05)
  La France paye au prix fort les erreurs lourdes du passé qui ont conduit à l’actuelle pénurie de médecins.
• Médecine et journée de la femme : la parité en... 2030 - La République des Pyrénées, France – (3/08)
  Selon les dernières projections démographiques de médecins en France, en 2030 plus de la moitié des médecins seront des femmes.
• El CES denuncia la creciente desigualdad del sistema sanitario – El País, Spain – (3/10)
  La ciudadanía acusa ya diferencias en terapias y diagnóstico de enfermedades - El organismo suspende a Sanidad en su tarea de coordinar a las autonomías.

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• Inseguridad y bajos sueldos opacan el Día del Médico - El Universal, Venezuela – (3/10)
  La inseguridad, los bajos sueldos y la falta de insumos en los hospitales públicos entre otras razones, poco a poco le han restado importancia al festejo. .
• Las mujeres campesinas ya no quieren más muertes maternas - ABC, Paraguay – (3/08)
  Pidieron a la ministra de Salud que disminuyan las muertes materno-infantiles y se dote de infraestructura médica a los servicios de salud del interior del país.
• Salud invierte $4.8 mills. en equipamiento de hospitales - El Mundo, El Salvador – (3/06)
  Es la primera gran inversión en equipos a nivel público, nunca antes se había invertido esa cantidad.
• Médicos paralizan 77 hospitales y piden 40 % de aumento - La Noticia 1, Argentina – (3/10)
  Insisten con la "necesidad de un aumento del salario de bolsillo del 40% para recomponer lo perdido durante el 2009 y el 2010".
• Demandan nombrar médicos en hospitales del IDSS - Diario Libre, Santo Domingo – (3/04)
  Formados por el IDSS, especialistas tienen que ofrecer sus servicios en otras clínicas y hospitales porque las autoridades no los nombran.
• Quase 90% dos brasileiros que acessam a web procuram informações sobre problemas de saúde - Click RBS, Brazil – (3/07)
  Comunicadores instantâneos, VoIP e plataformas sociais ajudam na hora da consulta virtual com o médico.