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Alliance News Digest

Week of 12 March 2010

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• Lira health units closed over drugs – New Vision, Uganda. (3/7)
  Abia health Centre II was found locked, while at Apala, the health workers were sharing wards with patients.
• Zimbabwe: Statement on women's right to maternal health care – ReliefWeb. (3/8)
  Skills for maternal health continue to be short within the health workforce
• Medics' Welfare Could Be Our Achilles' Heel – The Observer, Uganda. (3/3)
  Filling existing vacant positions in health facilities will reduce the current heavy workload experienced by nurses
• ‘With adequate motivation, we’ll get the best out of medics’ – Business Day, Nigeria. (3/5)
  Nigerian doctors constituted 30 percent of those delivering health services in some states in the US.
• SOMALIA: Too many patients, one mental health facility – UN IRIN. (3/9)
  The number of people seeking mental health treatment has increased in Bosasso,
• Volatile Climate Fails Mkukuta - Daily News, Tanzania. (3/3)
  In rural areas health workers do not have ability to diagnose faster the complications with the pregnant women
• Nutrition awareness project advocates strategic health planning – Ghana Web. (3/11)
  Many workers contract preventable non-communicable diseases because of squalid workplace atmosphere, poor working conditions…

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• This army's working a quiet miracle – Times of India. (3/8)
  In the vast rural hinterland of India, a new social force has silently emerged, unlike anything ever seen before.
• Katribu Cites Courageous Women Health Workers – Bulatlat, Philippines. (3/7)
  Many of the Philippines’s indigenous peoples live in hard-to-reach villages seldom reached by government’s social services, including health care
• Safe family planning (Editorial) – Dawn.com, Pakistan. (3/8)
  Pakistan is supposed to achieve universal access to safe family planning methods this year
• Private wings will cripple public healthcare – Malaysia Kini. (3/9)
  There has been a perennial shortage of medical manpower in the country
• Delhi HC asks govt for stand on 3-year course for non-MBBS – ZeeNews, India. (3/10)
  Short-term course on primary health is required to allow non-MBBS persons to practise medicine in rural areas
• 200 hospitals shut down on nurses’ lack – Manila Standard Today. (3/10)
  Two hospital wards stopped operating due to the lack of doctors and nurses
• Brumby plan aims to boost health staff – The Age, Australia. (3/11)
  Victoria would educate and train about 50,000 new healthcare workers, with another 150,000 trained in the rest of the country
• Rudd's first steps to a healthier network – The Australian. (3/7)
  There is need to create one national health system with local flexibility and innovation in delivery
• Worry over maternity provider's death rate – New Zealand Herald. (3/6)
  Counties has for years struggled with a critical shortage of midwives, the main providers of maternity care.

NORTH AMERICA

• Nursing, counseling staffs take big hits – Orange County Register. (3/5)
  Centralia is among scores of districts statewide slashing student health services
• The public health czar – University of Texas News. (3/8)
  Around 250,000 individuals will be needed by 2020 to fill vacant positions as public health professionals in the baby boomer generation retire
• Partners ups health initiatives in Haiti – Boston Herald. (3/6)
  Partners in Health has a three-year recovery plan with a fund-raising goal of $125 million
• Health Reform Passes the Cost Test – Wall Street Journal. (3/9)
  The Obama plan will cut costs—$600 billion over the next decade. Why walk away from it?
• IntraHealth International Opens Washington, D.C. Office – PRNewswire. (3/9)
  New office New office houses senior leaders of CapacityPlus, a flagship project addressing the health workforce crisis, as well as the organization's new Global Policy Division
• HHS Sec. Sebelius stresses collaboration in service delivery with county leaders – CivSource. (3/10)
  HHS set aside nearly $1 billion for grants to train, hire and retain qualified technicians and nurses who will lead America’s health system into the 21st Century
• Day after strike, jails' health workers locked out – Mercury News, CA. (3/10)
  Care workers held a one-day strike after working more than two months without a contract
• Democrats move toward grouping health reform with student-aid bill – Washington Post. (3/12)
  Democratic leaders were increasingly inclined to release a final health-care bill that could accomplish two of President Obama's top domestic priorities
• Mourir d'attendre – Cyberpresse, Canada. 83/8)
  Tout ce jeu de déplacement des patients sur des listes et des lits réels ou fictifs révèle aussi le manque chronique d'infirmières

EUROPE

• Agnes Moses: preventing maternal transmission of HIV in Malawi – The Lancet, UK. (3(6)
  The country has just one doctor for every 50 000 people; the UK
• How to stop women dying - hand out some mobile phones? – The Guardian, UK. (3/4)
  They train doctors and nurses and identify those among them who can become good trainers themselves
• International Women's Day call for labour deaths action – BBC News, UK. (3/8)
  Many medical problems are easily preventable if women had access to skilled health workers who can treat infections and use drugs to prevent haemorrhage
• Ten complaints a day from new mothers in NHS maternity wards – Mail Online, UK. (3/8)
  The Royal College of Midwives says Britain needs another 3,000 midwives to give new mothers the care they need
• Nurse-led clinics the solution to rural healthcare, says RCN – Nurse Times, UK. (3/7)
  Investment in the skills and training of the health workforce must continue
• How to Stop Bulgaria's Medical Brain Drain? – Novinite, Bulgaria. (3/9)
  Nurses and doctors are currently planning to join the massive brain drain to other EU countries.
• Iraq steps into a fragile and uncertain future – The Independent, UK. (3/5)
  Thousands of health workers who fled during the sectarian violence have not returned.
• Healthcare workers need more support in seeking help when they are ill – British Medical Journal. (3/10)
  New guidance to encourage more doctors and nurses to seek help without being stigmatised
• US plans to boost number of medical schools – The Lancet, UK. (3/6)
  Several US states are forging ahead with plans to build new medical schools in a bid to increase the number of US-trained physicians and fill gaps

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• 50% nursing students drop out – report – Jamaica Observer. (3/8)
  In 2007 the number of available nursing post in Jamaica' labour market was 970
• Fundacanoabo solicita a Insalud personal médico para su ambulatorio – El Carabobeño, Venezuela. (3/8)
  Centro asistencial rural desde hace un año carece de médicos,
• En Mendoza faltan 1.700 enfermeros – Los Andes, Argentina. (3/8)
  Así lo determinó un relevamiento realizado por la Asociación de Trabajadores de la Sanidad Argentina.
• Se avanza progresivamente en la normalización del país – El Mostrador, Chile. (3/6)
  Viajaron hasta la zona médicos, enfermeras y estudiantes de medicina y enfermería para reforzar la red de salud de los servicios de O’Higgins, Maule
• El miércoles comenzará la Tecnicatura en Enfermería – Auténtica Defensa, Argentina. (3/7)
  Formación gratuita con titulo oficial
• Legislatura bonaerense: Diputado pide informes por hospitales de la Región Capital – Impulso Baires, Argentina. (3/9)
  Existe falta de personal de enfermería en los hospitales de la Región Capital.

NEWS FROM WHO AND PARTNERS

• WHO supports Uganda mudslide emergency health needs – WHO. (3/10)
  Uganda urgently needs funds to support the relocation or recruitment of health workers, training, strengthening water and disease surveillance and early warning systems.
• UNFPA Supports Health Services for Resettled Women in Northern Sri Lanka – UNFPA. (3/9)
  Getting proper health care is a challenge for thousands of Sri Lankans who have gone home to former conflict zones
• Lord Nigel Crisp – The Lancet, UK. (3/13)
  Lord Nigel Crisp examined health systems worldwide and determined they need serious rethinking
• The course of specialization in public health in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 1926 to 2006: lessons and challenges – HRH journal. (3/5)
  An analysis of the course's history provides valuable lessons for other schools of public health trying to train professionals in developing countries.
• Join us on the Bridge on International Women's Day – Merlin, UK. (3/2)
  Raise your hand for amazing female workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo now at www.handsupforhealthworkers.org.