Subnavigation

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

Alliance News Digest

Week of 1 October 2010

NEWS FROM WHO AND PARTNERS

• More developing countries show universal access to HIV/AIDS services is possible – WHO. (9/28)
  Sustained commitments necessary to secure future progress
• In Pakistan's Swat valley, health workers reach out to women and children already struggling – UNICEF. (9/28)
  Ante-natal and post-natal check-ups for pregnant women and new mothers are being conducted by trained midwives
• UNFPA Welcomes World Leaders’ Action Plan for Progress on Maternal Health, Poverty – UNFPA. (9/24)
  World leaders adopted action plan to redouble their efforts to reduce maternal death and poverty and improve the health and rights of women
• Putting the word out: The importance of health workers – Merlin, UK. (9/24)
  Merlin has been working hard to raise awareness of the importance of supporting health workers in crisis countries
• Doubling the number of health graduates in Zambia: estimating feasibility and costs – HRH Journal. (9/22)
  MoH in Zambia is operating with less than half of HRH necessary to meet basic population health needs

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• Uganda needs 27,000 health workers – New Vision, Uganda. (9/26)
  Uganda has a ratio of one nurse to 5,000 people compared to Tanzania with one per 1,000 people
• Luanda governor salutes health workers - Angola Press. (9/25)
  Message by Luanda governor on the occasion of the health workers day, September 25
• SOMALIA: Khat-chewing "contributes to rise in Burao TB patients" – UN IRIN. (9/23)
  A contributor to the increase of TB patients is lack of access to health srvices by nomadic communities
• HIV/AIDS: Value for money central to achieving universal access – IRIN PlusNews. (9/29)
  Other strategies include task-shifting – where less qualified medical staff are trained to carry out tasks usually performed by doctors
• Fill all critical positions in the health sector – New Vision, Uganda. (9/27)
  The shortage of health personnel in Uganda is exacerbated by brain-drain resulting from poor facilities and poor terms and conditions of service
• Union says foreign doctors needed for NHI – Mail & Guardian, SA. (9/29)
  South Africa already suffers from an acute shortage of skilled health care personnel, yet the new system will require about 80 000 additional posts
• Zambian doctors on strike over pay – Africa Review. (9/29)
  Doctors in Zambia have gone on a countrywide strike demanding for pay rise and improved conditions of service
• Junior Nurses and midwives threaten demo – Joy Online, Ghana. (9/29)
  The health workers claim they have been working for the past 17 months without pay

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• People troubled in absence of doctors – Himalayan Times, Nepal. (9/25)
  Patients have been hit hard due to the lack of adequate health workers in Katari hospital of Udayapur.
• Pinoys urge PNoy to address corruption, human rights – ABS-CBN News, Philippines. (9/27)
  "How can he help stop hospitals in taking advantage of nurses by letting nurses work as trainees with no allowance/salary?
• For Pakistan’s pregnant women, safe deliveries depend on humanitarian aid – Media Global. (9/7)
  Unless humanitarian relief effort moves faster, 100,000 of the country’s pregnant women expected to give birth this month may not receive medical care they need
• More work to achieve MDG – Philippine Star. (9/27)
  Difficulties to reduce maternal mortality due to inadequate nutrition and care of many pregnant women, and because of the lack of qualified health workers to supervise birthing.
• Post-flood health needs (Editorial) – Dawn.com, Pakistan. (9/28)
  The pressing shortage of skilled healthcare workers — including lady health workers — has made a complex situation more difficult.
• Sindh’s elite must change now – The Express Tribune, Pakistan. (9/28)
  State of Sindh’s health is desperate. There is an acute shortage of vaccines, trained paramedical staff including lady health workers
• State targets crowded prisons – Phnom Penh Post. (9/29)
  There are 96 doctors working in prison healthcare centres, representing a ratio of approximately one doctor per 150 prisoners
• Why we're expert at riding the brain wave – The Age, Australia. (9/27)
  Australia would still have to import 25 per cent of its medical workforce during the next 15 years.
• Ageing population, ageing health workforce double whammy – NZDoctor, New Zealand. (9/24)
  The number of young doctors New Zealand is attracting to become GPs is not high enough to offset the number approaching retirement
• Health professionals, workers target Pasifika youth for career options – Pacific Scoop News, New Zealand. (9/27)
  Pasifika health professionals are seeking ways to boost career appeal to the youth.

NORTH AMERICA

• HHS Awards $320 Million to Expand Primary Care Workforce – Centre Daily Times. (9/28)
  Grants are part of Affordable Care Act’s Prevention and Public Health Fund and other initiatives
• Volunteer Community Health Workers Help Prevent Disease – Voice of America News. (9/24)
  Minimal training supports diagnosis and treatment of malaria, pneumonia
• USF gets $8 million to train public health workers – Tampa Bay Business Journal. (9/24)
  Grants awarded to USF College of Public Health will help train Florida’s public health workforce.
• Community Case Management of Fever Due to Malaria and Pneumonia in Children Under Five in Zambia: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial - PLoS Medicine. (9/21)
  Parents in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa rarely have easy access to health facilities and sick children are often treated at home by CHWs
• The Perennial Quest to Lower Health Care Spending – New York Tiimes. (9/24)
  Health care spending in the United States absorbed slightly more than 17 percent of G.D.P last year.
• Summit targets remedies for health care workforce shortages – Muskogee Phoenix. (9/27)
  Thirty-seven million of the nation’s 47 million uninsured will be covered and that will create 30,000 to 100,000 newly-insured people in the Tulsa area.
• ETSU gets $3.2M grant to start training center – CNBC. (9/23)
  According to the Association of Schools of Public Health, the United States will face a shortage of 250,000 public health workers by 2020
• Access to AIDS treatment improves in low income countries: WHO – International Business Times. (9/28)
  Limited human resources, weak procurement and supply management systems for HIV drugs affect the strength of the treatment
• What the Doctor Missed – Wall Street Journal. (9/27)
  Using malpractice claims to help physicians avoid diagnostic mistakes, delays…etc.
• Training epidemic-fighter detectives – Wall Street Journal. (9/23)
  U.S.-funded program helps health workers in developing countries track disease and speed response to outbreaks

EUROPE

• WALTHAM FOREST: Fraction of babies receive one-year checks - East London/West Essex Guardian Series, UK. (9/28)
  ONLY a fraction of babies born in Waltham Forest received their one-year health check because of staff shortages
• Staff need training to deal with self-harm – Irish Health. (9/27)
  Healthcare workers are still not receiving the appropriate training and support they need to help people who self-harm
• Staff crisis shuts A&E at hospital serving more than a million people – Daily Mail, UK. (9/23)
  One of Britain's largest hospitals has been forced to shut its emergency department and maternity unit for the winter due to staff shortages.
• Healthcare workers to protest over job cuts – Oxford Mail, UK. (9/29)
  On Saturday, the Oxford Mail revealed 1,900 jobs could be lost at NHS Oxfordshire
• Nurse management of HIV-infected patients – The Lancet, UK. (9/25)
  Outcomes of ART services provided by nurses were non-inferior to those provided by doctors.
• Continuing medical education across Europe (Editorial) – BMJ, UK. (9/26)
  Demonstrating cost effectiveness and impact on patient care may be difficult
• European countries need to work together – BMJ, UK. (9/29)
  European Health Forum’s discussions will focus on whether health care in Europe is ready for the future.
• UN summit launches new initiative for women and children’s health – BMJ, UK. (9/24)
  Significantly improving and sustaining women’s and children’s access to life-saving health interventions will require strengthened health systems with sufficient skilled health workers at their core.
• Who will care for us when we are old? – BMJ, UK. (9/29)
  Europe joins the global debate on who should deliver tomorrow’s health care

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• Gov't Seeking to Attract and Retain Health Workers – Jamaica Information Service. (9/24)
  The government has been focusing on training health workers to enhance the local workforce
• Poor saved $4-b in health care user fees – Jamaica Observer. (9/27)
  We recognise the difficulty that Jamaica faces in attracting and retaining our health workers
• IMSS reconoce deficit de personal, medicinas e infraestructura – SDP Notícias, Mexico. (9/27)
  Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social reconoció que el IMSS tiene un déficit de personal, de infraestructura y de abasto de medicamentos
• Unions, Gov't officials to meet on public health workers' pay – Jamaica Observer. (9/28)
  Says user fee policy poorly implemented
• Decadencia y escasez en el Hospital Mario Rivas – La Prensa, Honduras. (9/28)
  La demanda es cada día mayor, pero la capacidad de respuesta del centro médico va mermando
• SUS tem um ortopedista para cada 750 pacientes – HNews, Brazil. (9/27)
  Em geral, a fila de espera passa de 15 mil pessoas; faltam médicos para várias especialidades

Information