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Alliance News Digest

Information

WEEK OF 14 August 2009

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News from the Global Health Workforce Alliance - The Alliance

• The Country Collaboration Framework: a message from the Alliance Executive Director
  The CCF provides guidelines for strengthening country Human Resources for Health (HRH) institutions and partnerships
  
  

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• Retired medics to work in rural areas - New Vision, Uganda
  RETIRING medical workers at Mulago Hospital and other urban areas are to be redeployed to rural areas, the health ministry has said.
  

• GUINEA-BISSAU: “It’s like a hotel for pregnant women” - IRIN-Africa
  Capacity for early referrals is still very low, given insufficient health-workers in rural areas, and the lack of free, efficient transport to health centres, according to government health adviser Antonieta Martins.
  

• How Telemedicine Can Help People In Rural Areas Live Longer - Daily Observer, Liberia
  Telemedicine programs can improve the healthcare system and bring about a decline in Liberia’s mortality rates, there are many aspects of the health system that require a shift in paradigm in order to provide viable health care.
  

• GRNA to enforce code of ethics - Ghana Web
  MDGs on health would be achieved if high standards of professionalism were exhibited by all members in the public health care delivery system.
  

• Kamwi Praises Karas Health Workers - The Namibian
  HEALTH Minister Richard Kamwi has re-emphasised Government's commitment to providing an effective and efficient service delivery in all health facilities countrywide.
  

• HSWU decries exclusion of members from 17 per cent pay rise - Ghana Web
  HSWU expressed dismay about the exclusion of public health sector workers from the 17 per cent salary adjustment agreed.
  

• Ethiopie: Accélérer l'accès au traitement ARV grâce aux infirmiers - IRIN-Africa
  Du fait du bas niveau des salaires et des conditions de travail difficiles, de nombreux professionnels de la santé cherchent à exercer à l'étranger, dans des pays où ils gagnent mieux leur vie.
  

• Health workers urged to accept postings to deprived areas - Ghana Web
  Minister of Health appealed to doctors and other health workers to willingly accept postings to rural and deprived areas to save lives.
  

• BURKINA FASO: Farming cuts back hunger-watch - IRIN-Africa
  For village health volunteers in Burkina Faso who help track malnutrition in their rural communities, farm work during the rainy season takes precedence over their volunteerism.
  

• Two Years On After Ebola in Bundibugyo - NewVision, Uganda
  At Bundibugyo Hospital, all the health workers fled when the medical superintendent, Dr. Stephen Sesanga, contracted the deadly virus while five health workers lost their lives.
  
  

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• H1N1: Give frontline troops the best possible protection — Shin Young-soo - Malaysian Insider
  As the frontline troops in any pandemic response, health- care workers face potentially serious risks of infection and illness by simply showing up for work.
  

• Dolakha health posts lack staff - República, Nepal
  Seven sub-health posts in the villages of Dolakha district are without assistant health workers even as people here are suffering from various ailments..
  

• Stopping H1N1 - Business Standard, India
  WHO says a vaccine to guard against swine flu will be available by next month and developing countries will also get doses..
  

• Bush misses out on health recruits - The Australian
  CANBERRA is turning away four allied health recruits to the bush for every one it funds under its scholarship programs, despite country Australia's desperate need for better healthcare.
  

• Health workers trained to handle drug users - ABC News, Australia
  Dubbo health professionals are being trained to handle illicit drug users in a bid to protect the local community.
  

• Medical council accepts new code - Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
  The new code, supported by the Consumers' Health Forum, talks more in terms of the ideals of care and ethics.
  

• Release of reports on the medical workforce - Scoop.co.nz, New Zealand
  Labour welcomes the release of reports on the medical workforce.
  

• Expat SLankan health workers needed back home - ABC Radio Australia
  The Sri Lankan government has told an Australian relief worker that expatriate health workers are desperately needed in the former warzone of the Tamil Tiger conflict.
  

• Reliance on locums must end, says report - New Zealand Herald
  Public hospitals have been urged to turn away from their "unsustainable" and "potentially dangerous" heavy reliance on casual employees to fill doctor vacancies.
  

• Single agency for health workforce training planned - New Zealand Doctor
  Auckland Medical School head Des Gorman will lead a board being established to pull together health workforce work into a single agency.
  
  

NORTH AMERICA

• U.S. Health Bill Might Aid Rural Md., Hoyer Says - Washington Post
  Shortage of Doctors Reported in Calvert
  

• Huge wage cost to filling gap in sub-Saharan Africa's health workforce, study projects - UC Berkeley News, CA
  Hiring the nearly 800,000 workers needed to eliminate the staggering shortage of health care professionals in sub-Saharan Africa by 2015 will cost $2.6 billion a year.
  

• Center for Health Workforce Studies Releases New Physician Reports - HANYS, NY
  Thirty-nine percent of practicing physicians in New York are over age 50, representing an increase of 3% from last year.
  

• 800,000 More Workers Needed in Africa to Meet Health Goals by 2015 - New York Times
  To meet goals in improving maternal and child health and reducing AIDS deaths by 2015, Africa needs an additional 800,000 health care workers, a new study has concluded.
  

• Our View: Meeting need for health workers - S. Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
  It's wonderful to see Western University of Health Sciences opening three more colleges this month.
  

• BD and PEPFAR Collaboration Will Improve Blood-Drawing Practices in Hospitals and Clinics in Sub-Saharan Africa - PR Newswire
  Blood collection safety protects patients and health workers
  

• Global healthcare takes more than a pill (OpEd) - Boston Globe
  We need to expand our thinking to encompass holistic solutions that go into improving the health of the world’s poor.
  

• Can South Africa copy Canada's medicare? - Globe and Mail, Canada
  Canada's medicare system, already a subject of fierce debate in the United States, is now emerging as a divisive issue in South Africa.
  
  

EUROPE

• Hospitals creaking under the strain as NHS vacancies are left unfilled - The Times, UK
  Hospitals across England are experiencing staff shortages, but London is particularly affected.
  

• Better use of Locum staff the key, says Bleasdale - Recruiter, UK
  the health workforce is best managed by deliberately maintaining a strategic mix between permanently employed and flexible staff: a balance of 85% permanent to 15% locum is ideal.
  

• Health and development financing in Africa - The Lancet, UK
  Improving performance and further advancing the G8's accountability in global health was part of the working-group themes for health experts at the 2009 G8 Summit.
  

• Call for global health-systems impact assessments - The Lancet, UK
  Despite unprecedented increases in global health funding in recent years, major challenges remain for reduction of global health disparities.
  

• Europe’s biggest hospital faces privatisation - British Medical Journal, UK
  Europe’s largest university hospital group, the Charité in Berlin, faces controversy over a plan to sell one of its hospitals to a private company.
  

• Public health and peace building in Nepal - The Lancet, UK
  Nepal offers an intriguing case study of the challenges of meeting development and public health goals in post-conflict countries.
  

• La falta de médicos obliga a los pacientes a soportar largas esperas - El País, Spain
  Apenas si se cubren las vacantes del 55% del personal sanitario
  

• Enfermeros a la fuga - ABC, Spain
  La inestabilidad laboral y las rotaciones incesantes empujan al personal de enfermería a emigrar a otros países.
  
  

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• COP: Raw deal for local docs, nurses - Trinidad &Tobago Express
  Many nurses and doctors have been complaining that foreign personnel are taking their jobs..
  

• Organizaciones de Pedernales piden a la SESPAS ir en auxilio del hospital local - Nuevo Diario, DR
  Exigen el nombramiento de tres médicos pediatras, tres anestesiólogos, tres ginecólogo-obstetras, tres cirujanos generales, dos médicos internistas-cardiólogos, una auxiliar de enfermería.
  

• T&T gets more Cuban health care workers - Trinidad & Tobago Express
  They are among the first of 534 professionals to be brought in to fill the gaps within the local health sector.
  

• Gripe suína: vírus poderá dar ainda três voltas ao mundo - O Dia, Brazil
  Organização Mundial de Saúde alerta que perigo deverá retornar nos dois próximos invernos.
  

• Tienen Hospital de la Mujer y Tercer Milenio sobredemanda - Jornal Aguascalientes, Mexico
  Tanto el Hospital de la Mujer como el Tercer Milenio hay carencia de enfermeras y de los espacios en cama para hospitalización.
  

• Governo investe em projeto para beneficiar mães e recém-nascidos no Marajó - Agência Pará de Notícias, Brazil
  O projeto será desenvolvido pela Secretaria de Estado de Saúde Pública (Sespa), Fundação Santa Casa de Misericórdia do Pará e Amam.
  

• La inflación en el sector salud dobla a la inflación global acumulada en los últimos 6 meses - Entorno Inteligente, Venezuela
  Personal El tema de la carencia de personal calificado para laborar en el sector médico es de vital importancia y es que con la fuga de cerebros que existe en Venezuela, resulta complicado para las clínicas.
  
  

News from WHO and partners

• Canada Increases Humanitarian Aid to Sri Lanka - CIDA
  The Government of Canada is increasing its ongoing support to civilians displaced by the recent conflict in Sri Lanka.
  

• Clinton Foundation teams up with Pfizer and Matrix to reduce cost of HIV and TB drugs - Stop TB Partnerhip
  Pfizer will offer the tuberculosis drug rifabutin in 10 countries for $1 per dose, or $90 for a full course of treatment over six months.
  

• Cooperation between Faith-Based Organizations and UNFPA Critical to Maternal Health, Say Groups - UNFPA
  Partnerships between faith-based organizations and UNFPA are critical to enhancing efforts to reduce maternal deaths and end violence against women.
  

• "I won't be staying here for long": a qualitative study on the retention of migrant nurses in Ireland - Human Resources for Health Journal
  Although international nurse recruitment campaigns have succeeded in attracting large numbers of migrant nurses to countries such as Ireland.
  

• Increasing leadership capacity for HIV/AIDS programmes by strengthening public health epidemiology and management training in Zimbabwe - Human Resources for Health Journal
  This paper describes a programme in Zimbabwe aimed at responding more effectively to the HIV/AIDS epidemic by reinforcing a critical competence-based training institution and producing public health leaders.
  

• Challenges at work and financial rewards to stimulate longer workforce participation - Human Resources for Health Journal
  Because of the demographic changes, appropriate measures are needed to prevent early exit from work and to encourage workers to prolong their working life.
  

• Boosting Maternal and Child Health: Swaziland Shows the Way, One Mother at a Time - World Bank
  Child mortality and maternal health are Millennium Development Goals and are priorities for the Government of Swaziland as embodied in the Poverty Reduction Strategy and the Government’s Programme of Action.
  

• More jobs, better jobs for young workers - Public Services International – PSI
  UN International Youth Day – 12th August 2009