Subnavigation

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

Alliance News Digest

Information

WEEK OF 27 November 2009

News related to/from the Global Health Workforce Alliance

• "Eighteen francophone African countries gathered in Burkina Faso to build consensus on human resources for health coordination" - The Alliance. (11/9)
  Over 100 participants came together in Ouagadougou for the 2nd Meeting with countries and partners on Good Practices for Country Coordination and Facilitation in Human Resources for Health (HRH).
  
  

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• Training on safe childbirth planned - Daily Nation, Kenya. /11/22)
  A shortage of skilled birth attendants is exposing expectant mothers to risks.
  

• In Sierra Leone, Deputy Health Minister Forms Night Patrol Teams - Awareness Times,Sierra Leone. (11/19)
  Understand the gaps and challenges faced by doctors, nurses, midwives and other health staff
  

• Government Should Develop National Infrastructure - Daily Monitor, Uganda. (11/18)
  Less than 50 per cent of Ugandans can afford medical care in health centres
  

• Primary health centres are dying - NEXT, Nigeria. (11/22)
  Fotedo Clinic was losing patients to a nearby private clinic because the government centres often lack staff and drugs
  

• I served my country well: Mkapa - The Citizen, Tanzania. (11/20)
  "The health sector is being served by only 38 per cent of the required health workforce, with marked urban-rural disparities," said former President Benjamin Mkapa
  

• Group Laments Plight of Kaduna Health Workers - Daily Champion, Nigeria. (11/23)
  The health sector in Kaduna State is in a state of paralysis
  

• Lesotho ARV programme excellent example for SA - Times LIVE, SA. (11/17)
  Lesotho is successfully doing nurse-initiated AIDS treatment at a primary health care level.
  

• FG Approves Pay Rise for Medical Workers - This Day, Nigeria. (11/26)
  The inter-agency committee was set up by the government in response to the agitations by workers in the entire health sector
  
  

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• NA allows State medical staff to do private work - Viet Nam News. (11/24)
  The law is a response to the current shortage of health workers in the country
  

• Centre to open 250 midwifery schools - Express News Service, India. (11/20)
  To strengthen primary health care and increase availability and quality of nursing services.
  

• Practice of Medicine: HC issues notice to Centre, MCI - ZeeNews, India. (11/18)
  Government to provide three years course to health workers so that they could avail medical services in the rural areas
  

• Health workers file petition - Times of India. (11/21)
  It has been two months that around 3,000 employees of the health department have not received their salaries
  

• A Few Villages in South Sulawesi Lack Midwives - Tempointeractive, Indonesia. (11/20)
  To deal with midwives shortage, the provincial government plans to improve the transportation system from the villages to the remote islands.
  

• Eleventh Plan and health care (Op-Ed) - The Hindu, India. (11/23)
  According to the data given in the Eleventh Plan, there is a shortage of 5,801 doctors in PHCs and a shortfall of 4,681 specialists in Community Health Centres
  

• Red tape harms nurse practice - ScienceAlert, Australia. (11/25)
  ACU survey has found that Australia is failing to make best use of nurse practitioners within the health system
  

• Health service announces maternity shake-up - ABC News, Australia. (11/24)
  Women have not been able to give birth in Bourke since June because of a shortage of midwives.
  

• Why is health workforce reform SO hard? - Crikey Health Blog, Australia. (11/23)
  The current recruitment, training, and staff management systems are disjointed
  

• Medical Laboratory Workers’ value highlighted during contractual failure - New Zealand Doctor Online. (11/19)
  Media release from Medical Laboratory Workers' Union
  

NORTH AMERICA

• South African Nurses Say Shortages Force Them to Ration Anti-AIDS Drugs in Some Locations - Voice of America News. (11/21)
  “We’ve shut down nursing colleges while we’ve had a nursing crisis developing; we don’t train enough doctors…. “
  

• Nurse practitioners play key role in providing health care - Yakima Herald-Republic, WA. (11/22)
  About 7 percent -- of the roughly 3,600 nurse practitioners in the state practice autonomously
  

• Development and Implementation of a National Programme for the Management of Severe and Very Severe Pneumonia in Children in Malawi - PLoS Medicine. (11/10)
  Description of development, scale-up and achievements of a national pneumonia programme in Malawi.
  

• An Historic Step Toward Health Care for All Americans - Savannah Tribune, GA. (11/18)
  Strengthen and expand programs that promote diversity in the health workforce
  

• Area native promotes health care safety in Congo - Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, PA. (11/22)
  The new Center will provide training to Congolese health care workers.
  

• Addressing a crisis in long-term care (Editorial) - Concord Monitor, NH. (11/20)
  Department of Employment Security predicts that home health care worker will be the state's fastest growing occupation in coming years
  

• Fond du Lac facing shortage of nurses - FDL Reporter, WI. (11/24)
  Like the rest of the country, Fond du Lac faces an impending shortfall of nurses.
  

• OUR VIEW:Who will teach the doctors of tomorrow? - Bristol Press, CT. (11/22)
  As the population of the state ages, attracting and keeping medical talent will be increasingly important
  

• AIDS: Study in Rural Uganda Finds Benefits in Treating AIDS Patients at Home- New York Times. (11/24)
  Most Africans live in rural or exurban areas where clinics are far away and doctors and nurses are scarce
  

• L'APES fait le point sur la pénurie de pharmaciens - Canoe.ca, Canada. (11/18)
  Il manque cinq fois plus de pharmaciens que d'infirmières dans le réseau des hôpitaux du Québec. Sur la Côte-Nord, le pourcentage de pénurie atteint 48%.
  
  

EUROPE

• Women left alone during labour due to shortage of midwives, poll find - The Telegraph, UK. (11/25)
  Health Service is struggling to cope with a massive shortage of midwives
  

• HWS Labor Market Pulse Index Shows Continued Improvement In U.S. Health Care Labor Markets - Earth Times, UK. (11/22)
  Houston, Orlando and Atlanta are top three markets in Q3 2009; San Francisco Bay, Detroit and Los Angeles found to be weakest
  

• Lone health worker - The Guardian, UK. (11/20)
  There is a dire shortage of health workers in Turkana, Kenya
  

• UK loses out in medical talent war - Recruiter, UK. (11/24)
  The UK needs to raise its game if it isn’t to lose out to other countries in attracting skilled nurses and midwives.
  

• UK government outlines details of free personal care for people most in need - British Medical Journal, UK. (11/19)
  The UK government has promised to introduce free personal and social care for older people and disabled adults.
  
  

• Pays en développement : les technologies mobiles au secours des systèmes de soins ? - Le Monde. (11/20)
  L'absence de personnel soignant et de ressources en terme de santé demeure le principal problème de la plupart des régions
  

• Premier accord sur la santé et la sécurité au travail dans la Fonction publique - AFP. (11/20)
  Pour améliorer la médecine du travail (dite médecine de prévention), l'accord permet le recrutement de médecins contractuels
  

• 700 mil portugueses sem médico de família - TVI 24, Portugal. (11/25)
  A espera é o que mais desagrada aos utentes, que, ainda assim, estão mais satisfeitos com os centros de saúde do que em 2004
  

• Los pediatras denuncian el deterioro de sus consultas - El País, Spain. (11/21)
  El deterioro de las condiciones laborales de los pediatras con turnos de trabajo incompatibles con la vida familiar
  
  

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• Después de 2 años, liberan para Puebla mil 207 mdp del Seguro Popular: Arango - Jornada de Oriente, Mexico. (11/26)
  Con dicho dinero se podría resolver parte del déficit de las mil 400 plazas médicas y de enfermería que existen en Puebla.
  

• Clama Director del Hospital Antonio Lorena Urge licitación del Proyecto para nueva infraestructura - Sol del Cusco, Peru. (11/24)
  falta de personal médico y el deprimente nivel de equipamiento,
  

• Estudiantes de enfermería protestaron frente al municipio - Diario El Chubut, Argentina. (11/25)
  Por la intención del gobierno provincial se llevar adelante cursos de enfermería con el fin de paliar la carencia de enfermeros.
  

• Enfermedades emergentes y deterioro hospitalario debe ser la prioridad del Gobierno - Internointeligente, Venezuela. (11/26)
  El pago al personal médico según a las escalas de apreciación de la OIT, sería otra posible solución que evitaría el éxodo masivo de los profesionales de la salud
  
  

• Día Nacional de Enfermería y curso - Periódico Austral, Argentina. (11/21)
  El 29 de noviembre es el Día Nacional de la Enfermera
  

• Formados no exterior têm apoio de Lula e Amac - Oriobranco.Net, Brazil. (11/19)
  A revalidação surge como solução para melhorar a prestação do serviço essencial na área de saúde
  

News from WHO and partners

• omalia - Struggling to reach the sick - WHO. (September 2009)
  Somalia's humanitarian crisis has sunk to its lowest point in two decades.