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Alliance News Digest

Week of 23 April 2010

NEWS FROM WHO AND PARTNERS

• New WHO strategy calls for elimination of HIV in children by 2015 – UNAIDS. (4/21)
  Preventing PMTCT is one of the key pillars in the worldwide response to the AIDS epidemic
• Panel Highlights the Contribution of Maternal Health to Achievement of the MDGs – UNFPA. (4/15)
  UNFPA hosted side-panel addresses maternal health during the Commission on Population and Development
• Canada Applauds Global Effort to Improve Maternal and Child Health in Developing Countries – CIDA. (4/14)
  Canada champions the same goal through its G8 presidency
• Partners Launch the PPE Campaign Website – ICHRN. (4/8)
  The launch of the Positive Practice Environments (PPE) Campaign website was announced today by campaign partners
• Kenya: A play for life – Merlin, UK. (4/9)
  Merlin run training course for 50 volunteer community health workers in Nyanza province

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• Health workers up-in-arms against Jonathan – The Punch, Nigeria. (4/21)
  Health workers warned that if the health system in Nigeria is to improve, no medical doctor must head the health ministry
• On the Right Track to Better Health – Business Day, SA. (4/19)
  Each year the train, the only one of its kind in the world, travels to four provinces and treats about 44000 patients.
• You Want an Early Death? Try Giving Birth – East African, Kenya. (4/19)
  In Uganda, TBA help a significant number of women deliver especially in the countryside
• District Health Workers Rally For Free Healthcare in Sierra Leone – Standard Times,Sierra Leone. (4/17)
  Health workers cheered about their general salary increase and celebrated steps being taken to improve health care services and their working conditions.
• Medical Missions Guide Lagos in Health Policy Formulation – Vanguard, Nigeria. (4/19)
  Data will help to formulate health policies to benefit overall objectives of qualitative and affordable healthcare services.
• Kaoma DC bemoans lack of health personnel at clinics – The Post, Zambia. (4/20)
  Kaoma district, which has a population of about 200,000 people, needs more health workers
• Green light for new HIV, AIDS roll-out plan – BuaNews, SA. (4/20)
  Retired and non-practising medical staff such as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists were requested to make themselves available to the health system to support this initiative.
• Uganda: We Need More Personnel to Treat Our Sick Health Sector – The Monitor, Uganda. (4/21)
  A broken health system is a silent killer
• The Need to Address Resident Doctors' Complaints – This Day, Nigeria. (4/20)
  How the training of resident doctors would rub-off on the health of the public?

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• Govt to provide “unprecedented” allocations for health: Gilani – Associated Press of Pakistan. (4/17)
  A total of 12,000 community midwives will be inducted till 2012
• New Evidence on Maternal Health – Scoop.co.nz, New Zealand. (4/20)
  New Evidence on Maternal Health Proves Again That Broad Access to Hiv Treatment Pays Huge Health Dividends
• Remember us? We’re called nurses – Crikey, Australia. (4/19)
  Universities turn potential nurses away every year due to lack of places and funding
• Doctor claims GPs forgotten in debate about reform – The Examiner, Australia. (4/20)
  TASMANIA'S overloaded general practitioners have been left out of the health reform debate
• Qld health chief flags more pay blunders – Sydney Morning Herald. (4/20)
  Queensland Health director says staff can expect another month of pay blunders.
• Bonding scheme popular with health workers TV New Zealand. (4/19)
  For doctors, nurses and midwives willing to work in areas that have shortages, government helps pay-off their student loans

NORTH AMERICA

• Experts predict severe shortage of health care providers in 2014 – Medill Reports: Chicago. (4/13)
  There is one primary care doctor for every 1,070 people in Illinois.
• Doctor shortage? 28 states may expand nurses' role – Seattle Times. (4/13)
  A nurse may soon be your doctor.
• Nursing Exodus May Only Get Worse – Inter Press Service. (4/13)
  Shortage of nurses throughout the Caribbean has reached chronic proportions.
• New UCSF Report Identifies Steps to Increase Diversity in Medical Workforce – PR Web. (4/14)
  A new report has determined five elements critical to increasing racial and ethnic diversity in medical schools and ultimately, the physician workforce
• Health industry continues to hire as economy recovers – American Medical News. (4/19)
  162,000 new jobs were created in the U.S. in March 2010, including 26,800 in health care.
• Four-Year UTHealth Program Addresses Need for Public Health Physicians – Newswise. (4/19)
  UTHealth programme created to address the forecasted public health workforce shortage
• Health Workers in Haiti Fear Spike in Infectious Disease – Voice of America News. (4/19)
  As the rainy season begins, doctors are now concerned about infectious disease.
• Unions criticize California bill aimed at improving the policing of healthcare workers – Los Angeles Times. (4/17)
  The bill "creates problems for licensed health professionals without improving patient safety"
• Ensuring Health Care Access, Not Just Coverage – Huffington Post. (4/19)
  Demand for primary care services will increase sharply as more New Yorkers have access to health insurance coverage.
• HEALTH REFORM: Supporting Our Health Workforce – New Health Dialogue. (4/15)
  Part of the reason for the anticipated national nursing shortage is the lack of instructors

EUROPE

• Members at 'breaking point' - Royal College of Nursing – BBC News, UK. (4/20)
  There is a freeze on nursing posts and nurses are feeling the pressure.
• US needs "5000 extra doctors a year for next decade" – British Medical Journal, UK. (4/19)
  Association of American Medical Colleges has said that it needs to train 5000 extra doctors a year to meet the effects of the US health reforms
• UN launches new action plan on maternal and child health – British Medical Journal. (4/19)
  The United Nations has pledged to focus on child and maternal health
• Some doctors left in charge of 400 patients at night, study shows – British Medical Journal. (4/21)
  Figures from the Royal College of Physicians study found large variations in the provision of medical cover in hospitals at night
• Agencies in Haiti switch focus to long term health needs – British Medical Journal. (4/20)
  UNICEF is providing support to ensure access to basic health care for women and children
• Ten years of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Editorial) – British Medical Journal. (4/20)
  Successes of immunisation are tempered by slow progress in strengthening health systems
• Hospitals turned away 750 women in labour last year – The Guardian, UK. (4/22)
  Mothers forced to travel long distances to give birth because local maternity units had too few staff or beds
• State of Turkmenistan's health system – The Lancet, UK. (4/24)
  Health-care workers at all levels risk being fined, sacked, or even imprisoned if they do not falsify reports so that targets for health indicators are met.
• Fiscalização na saúde em risco – Correio de Manhã, Portugal. (4/16)
  A escassez de delegados de saúde pública pode colocar em risco a saúde das populações

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• Caribbean’s nursing exodus at ‘chronic’ levels – The Guardian, Trinidad & Tobago. (4/21)
  The shortage of nurses throughout the Caribbean has reached chronic proportions, in a region already struggling with an ailing healthcare system
• ‘Plan B de la salud es insuficiente’ – El Espectador, Colombia. (4/20)
  Expertos calculan que aún con las medidas incluidas en el proyecto de ley, al sistema de salud le seguirán faltando $2 billones
• PARÁ: Governo entrega novo parque radioterápico do hospital Ophir Loyola – Folha do Bico, Brazil. (4/20)
  Para atender a grande demanda de pacientes que, sempre contrasta com a carência de médicos e demais profissionais da área de oncologia
• Estado irá contratar profissionais para a Saúde – Alagoas 24 Horas, Brazil. (4/14)
  Sesau informou que a o PSS é para atender a carência de profissionais na rede estadual.
• Los autoconvocados de la sanidad decidieron volver al paro – El Siglo de Tucumán, Argentina. (4/20)
  Debido a la falta de respuestas del Gobierno a sus reclamos, los profesionales dejarán de atender desde hoy los consultorios externos y suspenderán las cirugías programadas
• Fuerte repercusión de la protesta privada sobre la salud – Diario Norte, Argentina. (4/21)
  Prestadores de la salud paralizaron ayer la atención a la población en protesta por el atraso en el pago de sueldos de todo el sector sanitario