Subnavigation

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

Alliance News Digest

Week of 8 October 2010

NEWS FROM WHO AND PARTNERS

• WHO guidelines on rural recruitment and retention – WHO. (10/1)
  WHO guidelines on rural recruitment and retention could change course of history
• Webcast: Invitation to a Presentation on e-Health Experience in Spain - World Bank. (10.7)
  e-Health Experience in Spain, October 7, 2010, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
• WHO simplifies treatment of mental and neurological disorders – WHO. (10.7)
  New Intervention guide to facilitate the management of common mental disorders in the primary health-care setting

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• Emergency care faces crisis due to halt in courses – Weekend Post, SA. (10/4)
  Thousands of prospective emergency healthcare workers in the Eastern Cape and across the country face being barred entry into the profession
• Swaziland leads in nursing wellbeing of health workers – Swazi Observer. (10/1)
  Sub-Saharan Africa bears 75% of the world’s HIV and AIDS burden, yet enjoys only three percent of the global health workforce.
• SA's ambitious NHI scheme to gobble up billions - Southern Times. (10/1)
  NHI scheme, will guzzle tens of billions for renovating dilapidated hospitals, training health personnel and importing thousands of doctors.
• Kenya: Training Health Workers On HIV Prevention for Positives – IRIN PlusNews. (10/4)
  Training and counselling for health workers dealing with HIV-positive people is very important in improving people's health
• Health minister puts numbers to the nursing crisis – Times LIVE; SA. (10/6)
  Overfull colleges have half the staff they need
• Zambian state doctors end strike – News24, SA. (10/1)
  State doctors in Zambia have returned to work, but say government has yet to resolve the problems facing the health sector
• Shortage of doctors to treat mental issues – Gulf News. (10/6)
  There are not enough qualified doctors to treat the growing number of people with mental illnesses in the UAE

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• 369000 Health Workers Have No Benefits - Manila Bulletin. (10/1)
  Despite working to provide health services, some 369,000 Barangay Health Workers in the country get no health coverage and other medical benefits
• Two CET centres sign deal to train more healthcare workers – Channel News Asia. (10/3)
  Centres have signed a deal to train about 100 people each year to ease the shortage in skilled healthcare workers.
• Gov’t urged to find migration balance – GMA News TV, Philippines. (10/4)
  The Philippines should determine the “optimum level" of migration for different professions to prevent either a shortage or surplus in the country’s human resources.
• Weak public health system causes infectious diseases – New Nation, Bangladesh. (10/2)
  Bangladesh is in shortage of an estimated 60,000 doctors, 483,000 health technologists and 120,000 nurses
• Health workers protest – Calcutta Telegraph. (10/4)
  Helath workers protests in demand for increase in daily wages.
• Health ministry backs rural medical course – India EduNews. (10/6)
  Lack of trained medical professionals has been repeatedly highlighted as one of the biggest challenges for India
• NHI, doctor shortages affect district hospitals – China Post. (10/2)
  Rise of national health insurance payments and a lack of doctors have made it increasingly difficult for district hospitals to maintain operations
• Nine Provinces ‘in Dire Medical State’ – Jakarta Globe. (10/1)
  Nine provinces have great health problems because of a lack of medical practitioners and prevention efforts
• Health care professionals stop work for pay increase – ABC News, Australia. (10/5)
  Hundreds of health workers went on strike in regional Queensland today demanding a better pay

NORTH AMERICA

• Progress in Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV – IPS Terra Viva. (9/29)
  According to report Towards Universal Access, the proportion of pregnant women in Sub-Saharan Africa who received an HIV test increased from 43 percent in 2008 to 51 percent in 2009
• Maine gets $1.9M to boost health work force – Portland Press Herald. (9/29)
  Maine and other states are in need of more primary care physicians, physician assistants, nurses and other professionals to meet the demands of an aging population
• States See Staff Shortage For Health-Care Overhaul – Report – Wall Street Journal. (9/30)
  An aging workforce presents a challenge to implement the health-care overhaul
• Study: Work force shortage looms in Nashville – Nashville Business Journal. (9/30)
  Professional and business services, health care and financial activities are expected to experience the most growth, with manufacturing continuing to decline.
• Baucus announces Montanan Kim Gillan as 1 of 15 on National Health Care Workforce Commission – Clark Fork Chronicle. (10/4)
  Commission will do important work to help prepare health care workforce to meet the needs of the 21st century
• MTSU nursing students aiding African colleagues – The Tennessean. (10/3)
  Students in MTSU's School of Nursing are teaming up to help their embattled colleagues in Botswana
• Community Health Workers: Bridging the Health Care Gap – Huffington Post. (10/4)
  A key challenge is how to will find the medically trained people to take care of the everyday health care needs.
• Institute of Medicine Releases Future of Nursing Report – Institute of Medicine. (October 2010)
  Landmark Report Outlines Blueprint for Nurses’ Role in the Future of Health Care
• Keeping foreign health workers focus of pilot – CBC News, Canada. (10/6)
  New pilot project for Atlantic Canada aims at getting and keeping foreign health-care workers by integrating them into the community

EUROPE

• Achieving the health MDGs: country ownership in four steps – The Lancet, UK. (10/2)
  Although some progress has been made, a new approach is needed if countries are to achieve MDG targets by 2015.
• New mothers 'let down by NHS postnatal care,' report says – The Guardian, UK. (10/3)
  Less than half of first-time mothers being given right level of information and advice, National Childbirth Trust finds
• Does Health Care Reform Do Anything for Midwifery? – RH Reality Check, UK. (10/3)
  Most midwives would agree that The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has several concrete benefits for the midwifery profession
• All applicants for University nursing courses accepted – Malta Independent. (10/4)
  MUMN had claimed that some 100 applicants for the nursing courses were to be turned down by the university
• Nurses Welcome Boost For Clinical Placements In Regional Australia – Medical News Today, UK. (10/1)
  The Australian Nursing Federation welcomes the federal government announcement of funding for regional hospitals.
• More must be done to address the cost of private healthcare and medical workers' training – Irish Independent. (10/5)
  Ireland is not training enough doctors and there are insufficient consultants in the system
• Health secretary defends NHS reforms as criticism grows – The Guardian, UK. (10/5)
  Andrew Lansley backs wide-ranging healthcare plans as GPs warn they could lead to fragmentation of NHS and damage public service ethos
• Expansion of cancer care and control in countries of low and middle income: a call to action – The Lancet, UK. (10/2)
  In resource-constrained countries without specialised services, experience has shown that much can be done to prevent and treat cancer by deployment of primary and secondary caregivers…
• La Slovénie va simplifier la procédure pour agréer les médecins étrangers – AFP. (10/1)
  La Slovénie a décidé de simplifier la procédure pour autoriser les médecins étrangers à exercer dans le pays pour lutter contre le manque chronique de personnel médical
• Sanidad recurre a titulados extranjeros ante la falta de médicos de familia – Información, Spain. (10/4)
  El 90% de la contratación de facultativos foráneos se realiza para que presten servicio en los Centros Públicos de Atención Primaria y Hospitales

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• Saturan hospitales públicos por la fuga de especialistas – Norte Digital, Mexico. (10/6)
  Especialistas intensificaron su emigración a otras partes del país o a Estados Unidos
• Más que hospitales, falta presupuesto: SS – Diario Ciudad Victoria, Mexico. (10/5)
  La falta de personal médico en Tamaulipas afecta a diez de los 43 municipios del estado
• Seguidilla de paros pone en jaque sistema de salud cruceño – El Mundo, Bolivia. (10/5)
  El hospital Japonés, considerado como el hospital más grande del país, pasó su primer día de paro sin prestar atención médica al público.
• Es alta la mortalidad en prematuros – La Nación, Argentina. (10/1)
  Los expertos lo atribuyen a la falta de enfermería especializada, información y organización de los recursos
• Llegar antes de tiempo – Diario La Prensa, Argentina. (10/3)
  La falta de personal de enfermería y de profesionales sanitarios adecuadamente capacitados para la atención de niños prematuros
• Se intensificará durante octubre la lucha contra el cáncer de mama – Notisistema, Mexico. (10/4)
  Hacen falta más radiólogos, son ellos los que interpretan la mastografía, nos hacen falta más mastrógrafos.....
• Más de 500 habitantes de Kankí padecen por la falta de médico – Tribuna Campeche, Mexico. (10/2)
  Al aproximarse la temporada de frío y con ella el incremento de los padecimientos respiratorios, no hay médico en la Casa de Salud
• La salud pública en crisis – La Prensa, Bolivia. (10/2)
  Constitucionalmente, la salud es un derecho y, en consecuencia, el Estado está obligado a su observancia y la entrega de recursos suficientes…