Subnavigation

• Global Health Workforce Alliance
• About the Alliance
• Members & partners
• Country responses
• Knowledge centre
• Media centre
• Forums

Alliance News Digest

Week of 10 October 2010

News related to/from the Global Health Workforce Alliance

• Kenya’s health sector ailing – Capital FM, Kenya. (10/13)
  GHWA Executive Director Dr Mubashar Sheikh said that the shortage was due to Kenya’s failure to invest in healthcare.
• Linking the Millennium Development Goals with Human Resources for Health - CapacityPlus. (September)
  Progress in human resources for health

NEWS FROM WHO AND PARTNERS

• Task shifting in Mozambique: cross-sectional evaluation of non-physician clinicians' performance in HIV/AIDS care – HRH Journal. (10/12)
  Many resource-constrained countries now train non-physician clinicians in HIV/AIDS care, a strategy known as 'task-shifting.'
• Announcement: Two new HIFA Forums will address the information needs of health policymakers in developing countries – HIFA2015. (10/10)
  The new global forums will be launched at the AHILA Congress in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
• New Website Launches with Tools for Managing Health Workers – IntraHealth.com. (10/5)
  The website offers tools for responding to the human resources for health crisis facing Africa.
• Health Worker Retention Survey Tested in Uganda – CapacityPlus. (10/20)
  Once testing completed, CapacityPlus will build the capacity of selected Ministry of Health and faith-based organization staff to effectively utilize these tools.
• Global Leaders Speak Out for Health Workforce Partnerships – CapacityPlus. (September)
  Health education in the global context
• Monitoring and evaluation training, discussion and resources by MEASURE Evaluation – HIFA2015. (10/14)
  Recent monitoring and evaluation (M&E) training and discussion forums

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• In Sierra Leone, Health for All Coalition Launches Monitoring Report – Awareness Times, Sierra Leone. (10/11)
  First report wasr launched by the HFAC-SL leading the monitoring process of the free health care initiative.
• Zim university receives U.S. Government award to strengthen medical education - The Zimbabwean. (10/08)
  UZ Receives U.S. Government Award to Strengthen Medical Education and Train Health Care Workers
• President Mills Advised To Sack Rojo Mettle Nunoo – Peace FM Online, Ghana. (10/6)
  Nurses embarked on a demonstration to register the non-payment of their salaries
• Telemedicine, e-health: Latest path to achieving nation’s MDGs – Business Day, Nigeria. (10/8)
  Over the years, the nation’s health sector has been plagued with the challenge of quality healthcare
• UN says maternal deaths drop – Ghana News Agency. (10/8)
  The MDGs can be achieved," said UNFPA "but we urgently need to address the shortage of health workers and step up funding for reproductive health services."
• Koina Health Centre Operates Eight Hours Daily As Nurse Shortage Hits The Facility – Foroyaa Online, Gambia. (10/8)
  Health centre used to operate for 24 hours before the shortage of nurses hit the centre
• Mayuge district lacks qualified medical workers – New Vision, Uganda. (10/12)
  Records show that 80% of the medical facilities are manned by unqualified health workers

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• How “incompetent ” our doctors – Pakistan Observer. (10/11)
  By and large Pakistani doctors are as competent as foreign doctors.
• Scarcity of nurses hits work at SMS – Times of India. (10/7)
  Sometimes a single nurse has to handle nearly 100 patients
• Angara seeks end to nursing woes – PIA Daily News, Philippines. (10/10)
  Discussion to be held to find solutions to lack of job opportunities for nurses in the Philippines and the apparent deterioration in the quality of nursing education
• Pakistan needs quality paramedics for healthcare system – The News, Pakistan. (10/11)
  Pakistan urgently needs more than 3000 nurses and paramedics and at least 1000 midwives to improve the country's healthcare system
• The experience of being a traditional midwife: relationships with skilled birth attendants – Rural and Remote Health, Australia. (9/20)
  This article focuses on an unexpected finding of a research project which explored the experience of being a traditional midwife
• Bankstown nurses push for more staff – Cantenbury-Bankstown Express, Australia. (10/5)
  Current nurse-staff ratio differs between each ward, with some nurses having to care for up to six patients each

NORTH AMERICA

• Urgent care center to open in Bucyrus in December – Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum, OH. (10/11)
  Urgent care centers are designed to fill a gap in the health care system
• HHS agencies partner with PEPFAR to transform African medical education - US National Institute of Health. (10/7)
  A dozen countries to benefit from $130 million investment to strengthen training
• Doctors at University of Colorado School of Medicine to train African doctors in AIDS care – EurekAlert. (10.7)
  A dozen countries to benefit from $130 million investment to strengthen training for health care providers
• Epocrates – Washington Post. (10/6)
  The Epocrates app is intended as a health-care professional's support tool
• New Hopkins program trains doctors in urban health issues – Los Angeles Times. (10/10)
  Doctors learn to prescribe more than medication, as program seeks to redefine city's health
• Africa: $130 Million From United States to Train Doctors in a Dozen Countries – New York Times. (10/12)
  Africa’s hospitals and clinics face a constant “brain drain” of doctors and nurses because Western countries offer higher salaries
• Overall cut in pay adds to nurses' outrage – Washington Post. (10/7)
  Washington Hospital Center officials forced through a plan that increases base pay but cuts shift pay for working evenings, nights and weekends
• The Doctor Deficit – Investor’s Business Daily. (10/5)
  Rather than "a baseline shortage of 39,600 doctors in 2015, current estimates bring that number closer to 63,000, with a worsening of shortages through 2025," says the Center for Workforce Studies.
• National Post editorial board: Make room for private health care options – National Post, Canada. (10/11)
  When searching for a solution to the shortage, discussion more often centres on increasing the supply of doctors, instead of their remuneration

EUROPE

• The doctor who would be king – The Lancet, UK. (10/9)
  The utopia of a medical government—giving the political commands to doctors—has been a recurring dream in the history of public health.
• Romania's health system lurches into new crisis – The Lancet, UK. (10/9)
  Doctors say that 36-h shifts are the norm, often with one doctor left in charge of up to 100 patients on any shift
• ZIMBABWE: Free Maternal and Child Care Needed From Government – IPS Terra Viva-Europe. (10/11)
  Zimbabwean health care system has been dysfunctional after years of under investment and massive staff exodus.
• Global health governance—the response to infectious diseases – The Lancet, UK. (10/9)
  There is urgent need for a mechanism that will enable coordination of aid for health at country, regional, and global levels
• HIV/Aids: Circumcision gains in popularity – Financial Times, UK. (10/5)
  A Muslim and a Jewish surgeon travel to KwaZulu Natal later this month to help local healthcare teams develop high-volume adult male circumcision programmes
• £610M NHS PAYOUTS FOR BABIES DAMAGED BY BIRTH BLUNDERS – Daily Express, UK. (10/10)
  Negligent care of newborn babies has cost the taxpayer an estimated £4billion in the past 15 years
• ConDem assault on NHS forcing angry staff to find jobs abroad - -Daily Mirror, UK. (10/8)
  Savage cuts in the NHS are driving medics overseas and sparking fears of a chronic shortage of nurses
• Nursing graduates get jobs despite embargo on staff – Irish Times. (10/12)
  Irish Nurses Organisation plans to hold a press briefing next week to highlight the lack of opportunities for nurses who are now graduating
• Possible shortage of up to two million health care workers by 2020 – European Hospital.com. (10/8)
  Health professions make up one of the largest segments in the overall European labor market, accounting for ten percent of the total workforce
• La crisis empuja a los medicos españoles a abandonar Portugal – ABC, Spain. (10/9)
  Las medidas de austeridad aplicadas por Portugal han empeorado las condiciones laborales de los cientos de médicos españoles que trabajan en este país

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• Ven necesario analizar presupuesto del IMSS – Milenio, Mexico. (10/14)
  Se tiene que indagar el por qué el IMSS no contó con los recursos para concluir la nueva clínica hospital para Saltillo
• Hacen falta más médicos especialistas en psiquiatría en el país, afirman – Andina, Peru. (10/13)
  Hay menos de 200 profesionales trabajando en todas las instituciones públicas de salud
• Falta de médicos en hospitales – Diario del Pueblo, Venezuela. (10/14)
  Los profesionales de la medicina se están marchando del país
• Desconoce director de SSZ problemática en municipios – NTRZacatecas, Mexico. (10/11)
  SSZ reconoció que se carece del personal médico necesario para cubrir la totalidad del territorio estatal
• Llaman a conciliación por el amparo de Pediatría en Bariloche – Rio Negro, Argentina. (10/14)
  Se requiere inmediata provisión del recurso humano indispensable, a fin de garantizar el funcionamiento de dicho servicio.

Information