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Alliance News Digest

Information

WEEK OF 31 JULY 2009

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AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• 1,000 health workers to get jobs - Sunday Vision, Uganda
  A THOUSAND health workers are to be recruited this financial year, Health Service Commission chairperson Prof. George Kirya has said. Sunday Vision, Uganda.
  

• Why Women Are Integral to Progress - The Citizen, Tanzania
  Various poverty elimination and reduction strategies and plans have been put in place, but the country is still struggling to meet its development goals.
  

• UN Urges Free Flow of Labour on Continent - Business Day, SA
  Restrictions on labour migration imposed by many African states are slowing down the pace of regional economic development in Africa.
  

• Brain Drain Hurting Country - Daily Nation, Kenya
  Prime Minister Raila Odinga has called on professionals trained locally to commit a fraction of their careers to serving the country after training before they go abroad.
  

• State Eases Conditions to Hire Medics - The Citizen, Tanzania
  The government has eased conditions for hiring public health workers to curb staff shortage.
  

• Uganda: U.S.$218 Million to Improve Health And Education - The East African, Kenya
  Uganda will receive Euros 175 million ($218 million; about Ush511 billion) budgetary support from the European Commission for the next six years.
  

• Govt in Drive to Lure Back Health Professionals - The Standard, Zimbabwe
  Government intends to lure back senior health professionals who migrated to Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland.
  

• Doctors' Strike Thanks to Health Department Incompetence - Health-e, SA
  For too long, health workers have dealt with the fall-out due to a lack of leadership from the national health department.
  

• Kath Honours Dedicated Workers - Ghana Chronicle
  There was a prize for the Best Practising Midwife (Grace Owusu), Best Senior Nurse (Charlotte O. Buabeng), Best Nurse Anaesthetist (Mrs. Stella Awuah), Best Junior Nurse (Zipporah Ntekor Kukubor) and Best Senior Doctor (Dr. Martin Yao Keketsyor.).
  

• Medical association urges action over doctor assaults - The Jordan Times
  JMAJMA officials fear that the increasing number of assaults on medical cadre will cause a brain drain from the public sector.
  
  

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• Lady Health Workers Programme is the backbone of country’s health sector: Neelam Jabbar - Online News, Pakistan
  The Minister Population Welfare has said that the government is expanding the Lady Health Workers Programme as the programme is the backbone of country’s health sector.
  

• Responding to overpopulation threat - Pakistan Observer
  According to the latest analysis, in 2007 there were 85 physicians for every 100,000 persons in Pakistan. Alternatively we can say that one doctor is available for 1,225 people.
  

• Gates foundation donates $41 mn for infant-maternal care in India - Business Standard, India
  Ireland-headquartered Concern would work with a broad spectrum of people, including mid-level and junior health workers, academia, civil society, private sector…
  

• Australia’s Oral health ranked second worst - Medical Devices & Equipment, Australia
  AUSTRALIA’S oral health status has ranked second worst in the OECD Community Services and Health Industries face skills crisis in oral health.
  

• Rudd: Reform won't come cheap - ABC News, Australia
  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned taxpayers that major reform of the country's health system will not come cheaply.
  

• Big care centres to replace surgeries - Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
  The so-called comprehensive primary health care centres would offer the patients the option of signing up with a single such practice.
  

• Nepean nurses fear chop for 155 - Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
  NURSES at one of Sydney's busiest hospitals fear losing their jobs after being told more than 150 positions would be axed.
  

• Medicare system failing indigenous - The Australian
  MEDICARE is failing indigenous Australians, funding just 500 follow-up consultations with doctors and 300 with allied health workers for Aboriginal people ...
  

• Health workers rally on job cuts - Northern Star, Australia
  HEALTH workers at Lismore Base Hospital will hold a stop-work meeting and rally in protest against the proposed job cuts to the sector.
  
  

NORTH AMERICA

• Durbin proposes means to ease nationwide nursing shortage - Marion Daily Republican
  Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) proposed legislation Thursday to create incentives for healthcare workers to become nurses and for current nurses to become nurse faculty.
  

• $1.1 Million Contract Awarded to Get Dislocated Workers into the Health Care Industry - PRLog.org, TX
  The grant will fund a workforce development program focused on providing Southern Nevadans with education, training and employment in the health care industry.
  

• Contextual influences on health worker motivation in district hospitals in Kenya - 7th Space Interactive Web, NY
  Organizational factors are considered to be an important influence on health workers'uptake of interventions that improve their practices.
  

• Assessment of Local Public Health Workers' Willingness to Respond to Pandemic Influenza through Application of the Extended Parallel Process Model - PLoS ONE
  Approximately 1 in 6 public health workers said they would not report to work during a pandemic flu emergency regardless of its severity, according to a survey led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
  

• Paging all doctors ... we need you too - Utica.OD.com, NY
  The Mohawk Valley has fewer doctors per person than any region in the state, and the numbers aren’t likely to improve, according to health officials.
  

• In War and Isolation, a Fighter for Afghan Women - New York Times
  Afghan midwife looks to rebuild profession. Decades of war and insecurity decimated the profession, leaving Afghanistan with the second-highest maternal mortality rate in the world.
  

• Immigration: More Foreign Nurses Needed? - Business Week
  The U.S. nurse shortage is getting worse, but are more visas the answer—or would improved training capacity, working conditions, and pay do the trick?.
  

• Support Slips for Health Plan - Wall Street Journal
  Obama Push Faces Growing Doubts in Poll; Overhaul Advances in House, Senate.
  
  

EUROPE

• Retaining health manpower in developing countries - The Lancet, UK
  The main reasons health-care workers migrate are to look for better opportunities, a better lifestyle, better education for their children, and safe working conditions.
  

• 2008 Workforce Census Published - Royal Pharmaceutical Society Of Great Britain - Medical News Today, UK
  The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain has published its fourth Pharmacy Workforce Census, reflecting the working patterns of pharmacists registered in August 2008.
  

• Top health workers nominated - TeleText, Scotland, UK
  Residents are being invited to nominate individuals and teams for the NHS Highland Staff awards.
  

• Nurses And Midwives Looking For Real Reforms, Australia - Medical News Today, UK
  ANF understands the complicated nature of Australia's health system and the challenges it faces and will welcome initiatives that bring real reform to health funding.
  

• GPs who work alone are six times as likely to come before GMC - British Medical Journal, UK
  Figures published by the UK General Medical Council show that GPs who work on their own are six times as likely to attend a disciplinary hearing than those working in group practices.
  

• NHHRC Report Fails To Address The Future Of Rural Health, Australia - Medical News Today, UK
  It is unfortunate that the Commission has been unable to highlight specific strategies to recruit and retain more doctors into the bush.
  

• La precariedad laboral merma la Sanidad pública - Público, Spain
  Gobierno y colectivos profesionales cifran en 3.200 el déficit de médicos y en 150.000 el de enfermeras. Sus salarios son de dos a tres veces inferiores a los de otros países europeos.
  

• Siete minutos por prematuro en Vigo - La Voz de Galicia
  Cinco noches a la semana una sola enfermera atiende dos áreas con capacidad para 27 niños. La falta de espacio y de personal son ya el eterno problema del Xeral.
  

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• HIV/AIDS could spread among indigenous communities - Latinamerica Press/Noticias Aliadas
  Poor culturally-insensitive health care and some religious officials stand in the way of stemming HIV’s spread.
  

• Venezuela Opposition Highlights Problems in Government-Controlled Health Sector - Latin American Herald Tribune, Venezuela
  Metropolitan Mayor Antonio Ledezma warned that there was a great “brain drain” of talent and skills from the country, not least in the health sector.
  

• Mi influenza - Expreso Chiapas, Mexico
  Por otra parte, los servicios médicos privados pueden ayudar, hasta cierta medida, a paliar las grandes carencias del sector salud.
  

• Hospitais adotam unidades móveis para diagnosticar infectados pela nova gripe - Zero Hora, Brazil
  Porto Alegre está com edital aberto para contratação de 108 médicos com a finalidade de suprir a carência de profissionais.
  

• Falta personal preparado para atender a los adictos - Siglo de Durango, Mexico
  A pesar de que el consumo de drogas en la actualidad ya es un tema de salud pública, las escuelas de enfermería y medicina no contemplan en su currícula la enseñanza para tratar a personas adictas.
  

• INSS confirma quatro mil vagas para cargos de 2º e 3º graus - Página 20, Brazil
  O concurso se faz necessário devido à carência de pessoal, conforme informou os dirigentes da Anasps e da Associação dos Médicos Peritos
  

• Casinhas de saúde da família serão substituídas - Portal Amazõnia, Brazil
  O projeto prevê a construção de 90 módulos de saúde da Família que, segundo o Deodato, atenderá 100% da população da capital
  

• Futuras enfermeras protestan por falta de pago - La Prensa, Nicaragua
  Estudiantes y docentes de la Escuela de Auxiliares de Enfermería llegaron al Sistema Local de Atención Integral en Salud (Silais) de Managua, para demandar el pago de los meses de junio, julio y agosto.
  
  

News from WHO and partners

• Cured patients help in TB treatment in Tanzania - WHO
  Treatment of tuberculosis involves taking tablets daily for at least six months. TB patients must take all their medications as prescribed.
  

• Public-private partnerships strengthen health systems and AIDS response - UNAIDS
  A Public-Private Partnership is defined as an “institutional relationship between the state and the private profit and/or the private non-profit sector.
  

• MCC and Global Health Initiatives: Paving the Road to Healthy Lives - Global Health Council
  Improvements in both health infrastructure and physical infrastructure play a critical role in providing access to healthcare for the world's poor.
  

• Systematic inclusion of mandatory interprofessional education in health professions curricula at Gunma University: a report of student self-assessment in a nine-year implementation - Human Resources for Health Journal
  The mandatory interprofessional education programme at Gunma University was initiated in 1999. This paper is a statistical evaluation of the programme from 1999 to 2007.
  

• Improving obstetric care in low-resource settings: implementation of facility-based maternal death reviews in five pilot hospitals in Senegal - Human Resources for Health Journal
  The aim is to explore and describe health workers' perceptions of facility-based maternal death reviews.
  

• A review of the application and contribution of Discrete Choice Experiments to inform human resources policy interventions - Human Resources for Health Journal
  Recently, a few studies have adopted an innovative approach to studying the determinants of health workers' job preferences.
  

• Merlin responds to deadly diarrhoea outbreak in Nepal - Merlin, UK
  Merlin has responded to a deadly outbreak of diarrhoea in Nepal, which has so far claimed 220 lives. In the Uwa area of Rolpa district, 88 cases were reported in just two days.
  

• World Bank Report Highlights Need for Continued Reform Efforts in China’s Rural Health Sector - World Bank
  The report, Reforming China’s Rural Health System, begins by setting the context for the recent and planned reforms by examining the symptoms and causes of China’s health challenges at the start of the new Millennium.