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Alliance News Digest

Week of 9 April 2010

NEWS FROM WHO AND PARTNERS

• Lauch of the PPE Campaign web site
  The Alliance is pleased to join the group of health professional associations - members of the Alliance - in launching the Positive Practice Environments (PPE) Campaign web site.

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• Minister warns health workers – New Vision, Uganda – (04/04)
  Mwesigwa Rukutana, has warned health workers against mistreating patients, saying the Government is designing a law that will punish the culprits.
• Hospitais de Luanda congestionados por carência de médicos especialistas – Jornal de Angola, Angola – (04/05)
  Em Luanda, que os oito especialistas em nefrologia existentes em Angola são insuficientes para o atendimento dos inúmeros casos de doentes renais
• Health Workers Enrich Knowledge In HIV Care – Cameroon Tribune, Cameroon – (04/06)
  Medical and para-medical personnel selected from Cameroon and other countries in the Central African Sub-Region will be schooled on public health, clinical presentation of HIV infections, biology of HIV infection and pharmacology of the antiretroviral drugs.
• RDC blames drugs shortage on theft – New Vision, Uganda – (04/07)
  AMURU resident district commissioner (RDC) Edwin Yakobo Komakech has attributed the shortage of drugs in health facilities to drug theft by medical workers

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• Health workers to strike over pay – The Nelson, New Zealand – (04/06)
  Radiographers at Nelson Hospital will strike tonight over the refusal of Nelson Marlborough District Health Board to consider anything other than a zero per cent pay rise
• Australia - Boost for Allied Health in Rural and Remote Australia – ISRIA, Australia – (04/06)
  The Rudd Government will double scholarships for allied health clinical placements in rural areas and establish a locum scheme to support 1,000 allied health workers over the next decade
• Needle pricks a work hazard for docs, nurses – The Times of India, India – (04/05)
  A study carried out at Vardhaman Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital has thrown up some worrying stats — of the 428 healthcare workers studied, almost 80% (343) gave a history of NSI in the preceding one year.
• Call goes out for more rural health leaders – ABC News, Australia – (04/08)
  Anew generation of professionals is needed to replace ageing country doctors and health workers.
• Court orders transfer of 38 health workers to Crame – GMA News, Philippines – (04/08)
  38 of the so-called Morong 43 will finally be taken out of military custody and transferred to a police facility following an order from a local court
• Japan hires Pinoy health workers – MB.com, Philippines – (04/08)
  Some 125 Filipino health workers will leave for Japan next month after being hired in various institutions under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement

NORTH AMERICA

• NACCHO highlights the loss of public health workers nationally due to economy – Sussex countain.com – (04/05)
  NACCHO estimates indicate that about 23,000 jobs, or 15 percent of the total local public health workforce, have disappeared in the last two years
• SGEU deal puts pressure on health workers to settle – Leader Post, Canada – (04/06)
  The negotiated settlement with SGEU strengthens the government's position with health workers
• Temple nurses strike over work rule, tuition perk – Associated Press, USA – (04/06)
  About 1,000 nurses and 500 professional health workers have been picketing the hospital for nearly a week
• For Haitian-American Doctors, a Call to Return - The New York Times – (04/04)
  In a way Haiti is benefiting from ambitions blown to the winds by the country’s decades of unrest. Thousands of Haitian-American medical professionals have volunteered to help. At least hundreds, and probably several thousand, have already traveled there to work.
• Health Workforce Key to Successful Health Reform Implementation – PRNewswire – (04/01)
  Challenges Facing All Health Professions Highlight Need for Comprehensive Policy
• HEALTH-INDIA: Trained Birth Attendants Save Rural Mothers’ Lives – IPS Terra Viva – (04/07)
  NRHM uses "skilled" health assistants, which refer to accredited health professionals such as a midwives, doctors, or nurses.
• Grant to CCBC to help train health workers – The Daily Record – (04/07)
  More than 2,000 allied health students at the Community College of Baltimore County will benefit from nearly $5 million in federal funding, the money was designed to alleviate the state’s health care worker shortage.

EUROPE

• New medicine for healthcare in cities – Financial Times, UK – (04/06)
  One challenge is to ensure sustainability through local funding and staffing, at a time when poor management and weak financial incentives are fuelling a “brain drain” of the best medical staff out of the public sector, the health sector and even their own country
• Portugal tem falta de reumatologistas – Correio de Manha, Portugal – (04/05)
  As doenças ligadas ao reumatismo são a principal causa de incapacidade temporária e de reforma antecipada por invalidez. Em Portugal, os números são elevados havendo por isso falta de médicos reumatologistas
• SOUTH AFRICA: Fewer doctors graduate – University World News, UK – (04/04)
  A more than 6% decline in medical graduates between 2004 and 2008 - from 1,394 to 1,306 - has been blamed on lack of funds, staff shortages and poor facilities.
• Paying a "living wage" for health workers – Reuters, UK – (04/01)
  Paying health workers a "living wage" is a prerequisite for a well-functioning health system. Salaries are often the single biggest regular expenditure within a health budget
• Initiative populaire déposée avec plus de 200'000 signatures – Romandie News, Switzerland – (04/01)
  Il faudra trouver 3200 médecins de famille en 6 ans et plus de 4500 d'ici 11 ans
• Trade unionists from the health care industry will protest in Warsaw today – The News.pl, Poland – (04/07)
  Under banners reading "Defending patients' rights, defending our rights" Trade Unionists, fight for equal access to health care services and the rights of the sector's employees
• International Summit Seeks Solutions To Global Shortage Of Nursing Faculty – Medical News Today, UK . (04/07)
  The global nursing shortage is due in part to a lack of faculty in nursing schools and to a phenomenon known as nurse migration, where nurses leave their country of origin to work elsewhere
• Faltade Médicos em Portugal. Regresso sw quem estuda no estrangerio é soluçào? – Canal UP, Portugal – (04/07)
  Contratar médicos estrangeiros, chamar de novo profissionais já reformados e criar condições para o regresso dos estudantes de Medicina no estrangeiro são soluções encontradas pelo Ministério da Saúde para combater a carência de médicos

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• Nuevo Clínicas no podrá operar por falta de personal e insumos – Ultimo Hora, Paraguay – (04/06))
  Pese a los millones de dólares invertidos en la nueva sede, ésta no podrá funcionar por falta de recursos, asegura la jefa de Enfermería. Denuncia la falta de una planificación que garantice un servicio de calidad
• En CMI un solo auxiliar atiende a 12 niños en estado delicado – Ultima Hora, Paraguay – (04/08)
  Son pacientes con cáncer y leucemia del Materno Infantil, que requieren del cuidado de dos licenciadas y una auxiliar, denuncia el gremio de enfermeras. Por ello, mañana van al paro reclamando una solución
• Se manifiesta personal de enfermería del ISSSTE – La Jornada de Oriente, Mexico – (04/08)
  Unas 50 enfermeras del turno vespertino del Hospital Regional del ISSSTE se manifestaron - argumentaron que desde su llegada –marzo de 2009– las condiciones laborales de los trabajadores y la calidad del servicio a los derechohabientes, en lugar de mejorar, empeoraron

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