Subnavigation

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

Alliance News Digest

Week of 17 September 2010

NEWS FROM WHO AND PARTNERS

• Maternal deaths worldwide drop by third – WHO. (9/15)
  UN estimates reveal fewer women dying from pregnancy-related causes, but 1000 still die a day and more needs to be done to achieve set targets
• Maternal deaths worldwide drop by a third – UNAIDS. (9/15)
  The number of women dying due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth has decreased by 34%, according to a new report
• In Pakistan's flood-devastated Sindh province, female health workers play key role – UNICEF. (9/15)
  UNICEF-supported 'lady health workers' programme serves families in flood zone.
• Bank, Global Partners Redouble Commitment to Millennium Development Goals – World Bank. (9/13)
  World Bank commits to new financing to help countries reach the MDGs
• UN Women’s first chief voices optimism as she begins her new post – UN News Service. (9/15)
  Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to lead new U.N. Agency
• Achieving development goals first step to ensuring rights for all – UN experts – UN News Service. (9/16)
  At UN Headquarters in New York on Monday will begin a three-day summit during which will be discussed the progress made so far and how to advance the ambitious MDGs

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• Ghana’s health workers want legislation on violence against them – Ghana Business News. (9/12)
  Parliament should consider enacting laws on violence against health personnel to ensure that health workers operate in an atmosphere of peace.
• Africa: Drug-Resistant HIV Threat Looming – UN IRIN. (9/9)
  Shortages of staff and resources meant treatment programmes in Africa are also often ill-equipped to pick up on patients who are failing treatment
• Health workers besieged by drug-resistant TB – Times LIVE, SA. (9/12)
  Urgent new infection control measures are needed to stop doctors and nurses infecting their patients with deadly drug-resistant tuberculosis
• Health workers urged to exercise self control – Ghana News Agency. (9/13)
  Topic of health symposium: "The Role of the Health Worker in Quality Assurance in the Health Institution".
• Financing Public Health in Africa – Inter Press Service. (9/14)
  Poor health in Africa has been perpetuated by a lack of health workers and poor distribution of those who are available
• WHO defends innovations for health progress – Angola Press. (9/15)
  Achievement of MDGs depends partly on effective approaches related to the strengthening of Human Resources.
• National Pharmacy Week Highlights Chronic Shortage – The Namibian. (9/9)
  Critical shortage of qualified Namibian pharmacists was highlighted at the official launch of the 2010 National Pharmacy Week
• Bientôt une université internationale – Le Matin, Morocco. (9/15)
  L'UIC ambitionne de contribuer à la formation de professionnels de la santé et du paramédical, dont le manque se fait ressentir au niveau national et international
• Arrière-pays cherche médecins désespérément – El Watan, Algeria. (9/12)
  Ils conditionnent leur affectation dans les hauts-plateaux et au sud

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• Asia's maternal mortality rate declines 52 percent: Report – Sify News, India. (9/15)
  The is urgent need to address the shortage of health workers and step up funding for reproductive health services.
• For Pakistan’s pregnant women, safe deliveries depend on humanitarian aid - MediaGlobal. (9/7)
  Pakistan’s Lady Health Workers program is a government-funded force of over 96,000 such health workers
• Foreign health workers pay tribute to Taiwan counterparts – Focus Taiwan News Channel. (9/9)
  High level of expertise, discipline and friendship was shown by the Taiwanese health professionals
• Filipinos will get less health care next year – The Star, Philippines. (9/13)
  The Aquino administration has significantly cut the operational budget of almost all government hospitals
• Family health worker issues settled – Daily News, Sri Lanka. (9/11)
  Quick solutions have been found for the long standing problems of family health workers in the country by the Health Ministry
• Aust assists reproductive health care – Sydney Morning Herald. (9/15)
  Australia is backing the publication of a UN and WHO field manual on reproductive health for healthcare workers and volunteers on the Thai-Burma border
• Striking health workers putting New Zealand health care at risk – NZDoctor.com. (9/12)
  Access to public health services is being compromised by health professionals taking industrial action
• Queensland Health workers threaten to strike – Courier Mail, Australia. (9/13)
  QUEENSLAND Health is facing more strikes after health professionals ignited a wage campaign yesterday.

NORTH AMERICA

• Health Plan Won’t Fuel Big Spending, Report Says – New York Times. (9/9)
  A new government study says President Obama’s health care law will have negligible effects on total national health spending in the next 10 years
• Kids' doctors urge flu shots for all health-care workers – Chicago Sun-Times. (9/13)
  Unvaccinated doctors, nurses and other health workers pose a threat to patients
• Let's put more nurses on the job in California (Editorial) – Bakersfield Californian. (9/9)
  Bill would help improve the quality of California's health care."
• Women, Children Top U.N.'s Anti-Poverty Agenda – IPS Terra Viva. (9/14)
  All eight MDGs are critical to development, but numbers four and five on child and maternal health are the real priority areas for this year
• Zimbabwe court frees on bail US health workers – Washington Post. (9/13)
  A Zimbabwean court freed on bail four Americans arrested and accused of treating AIDS patients without proper medical licenses.
• B.U. gets grant to train health workers – Boston Business Journal. (9/13)
  Grant of under $650,000 will serve to enhance skills of current and future health care workers
• Bill could require more than 250,000 Ind. health workers to pay for FBI background checks – The Republic, Ind. (9/13)
  Thousands of medical workers in Indiana would have to pay for their own FBI background checks under a lawmaker's proposed change to the state's system for obtaining health care licenses
• Examining the “Urban Advantage” in Maternal Health Care in Developing Countries – PLoS Medicine. (9/14)
  Analyses have not tended to take into consideration the special nature of urban poverty
• Government Spending Millions of Dollars on Public Health Training Centers – CNS News. (9/14)
  PHTC Program is intended to improve the public health system by “enhancing skills of the current and future public health workforce

EUROPE

• Providing paediatric palliative care in Kenya – The Lancet, UK. (9/11)
  Kenyan health-care professionals are rarely trained to treat pain and are unaware of the benefits of morphine
• When praise is worth considering in a difficult conversation – The Lancet, UK. (9/11)
  Praising family members and patients will make things worse if the praise seems inauthentic or patronising
• Scottish public sector staff to receive 'virtual' pay freeze – The Telegraph, UK. (9/15)
  Deep public spending cuts will mean tens of thousands of public sector workers receiving a virtual pay freeze next year, Scotland’s finance minister has confirmed.
• Health-care dynamics in Haiti – The Lancet, UK. 9/11)
  The emergency medical response in Haiti was one of the few success stories of the relief effort, but the influx of foreign doctors has had several unintended consequences
• The strikes end – The Economist, UK. (9/7)
  Despite a series of big wage increase in recent years, South Africa’s public servants—particularly teachers, doctors and nurses—continue to be relatively poorly paid
• Union accuses government of intimidating nurses – Times of Malta. (9/13)
  The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses yesterday threatened to step up industrial action at Mater Dei and Mount Carmel hospitals
• The coalition will cut maternal deaths by 2015– The Guardian, UK. (9/14)
  The UK is committed to doubling the number of women who survive pregnancy and childbirth over the next five years.
• Health workers union on strike alert – Prague Daily Monitor, (9/14)
  The union says health workers' wages have been undervalued for a long time
• Improve maternal health – The Guardian, UK. (9/14)
  Learn more and find out how to take action towards achieving millennium development goal five
• Un año sin enfermeras – Vanguardia, Spain. (9/11)
  Faltan profesionales para cubrir suplencias y en unos años habrá más jubilaciones que incorporaciones

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• Debe la alcaldía también 280 mil pesos a médicos – Norte Digital, Mexico. (9/12)
  A partir del 2009 la administración municipal les ha retrasado cheques por honorarios hasta por cinco meses
• Red de Salud Puno carece de médicos y enfermeras – Los Andes, Peru. (9/13)
  Celebrarán aniversario en medio de carencia de personal para brindar servicio
• Convenio permitirá que pediatras se radiquen en el interior del país – La República, Uruguay. (9/13)
  Carencia. El 90% de los especialistas en niños vive en Montevideo
• 23 mil médicos esperan discutir contrato colectivo – El Universal, Venezuela. (9/14)
  Denuncian violación oficial de estatutos internacionales que rigen la actividad
• Registran en Nuevo Laredo déficit de médicos familiares – Milenio, Mexico. (9/15)
  Hay retrasos en las consultas a los derechohabientes del IMSS en la frontera de Tamaulipas

Information