Dr. Anila Jasinghe, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Mass Media, Sri Lanka;
Dr. Vijara Dissayanke, President Sri Lanka Medical Council;
Distinguished Member State Representatives;
Senior Regulatory Authority Representatives;
Our most senior advisors Dr. Palitha, Dr. Suwit, and Dr. Srinath Reddy;
Experts, partners, colleagues and friends
Good morning, and welcome to this Regional Workshop on Human Resources for Health, on Strengthening Competence and Compassion, co-organized with The Asian Collective for Health Systems.
COVID-19 showed the world the importance of health workers - to health, well-being and economic prosperity. Spending on human resources for health (or HRH) is not a cost. It is an investment with returns in health, inclusive employment, and social cohesion.
While the Covid-19 pandemic brought renewed global interest in strengthening HRH, this has already long been a priority in our Region.
In 2006, the World Health Report identified the greatest absolute HRH shortages as being here, in South-East Asia. Currently, progress is fastest in our region.
Indeed there is much that we can rightfully be proud of in our region.
Since 2014, as part of the Decade for Strengthening HRH, our region has increased the density of doctors, nurses and midwives by approximately 70%.
Almost all our countries have met and surpassed the original WHO threshold of 22.8 doctors, nurses and midwives for every 10,000 people.
Crucially, throughout this period, we have witnessed a revolution in access to health professional education.
Take the example of medical doctors – the most costly and time-consuming occupation to train. Currently, production capacity for medical doctors in the SE Asia Region is that of 36 OECD countries combined.
With the production of health workforce increasing rapidly, quality – both clinically and in providing compassionate care - and alignment to society’s evolving health needs must be our collective focus.
As a reminder, poor quality care is today a greater barrier to reducing mortality in low-and middle-income countries than insufficient access. The Lancet Commission on High Quality Health Systems estimates that 60% of 8.6 million deaths from treatable conditions are attributable to poor quality care.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Sri Lanka, our hosts for this workshop, has long been recognized for providing ‘Good Health at Low Cost’. The IMF, in 2007, said this was directly attributed to creating “a professional culture amongst its health care practitioners: placing professional commitments first, and self-interest second”.
Both the Ministry of Health, and the Sri Lanka Medical Council, shortly to celebrate its’ Centenary on 5 July, have played key role in this.
We stand today in changing circumstances. A health workforce built for the MDGs is challenged to deliver in the SDG and post-SDG era. A future ready health workforce must evolve to advance UHC and health security. It must do this amidst demographic, epidemiological, and technological changes. It must also do this in in the context of more frequent and increasingly severe health emergencies.
I am also reminded of the words of Prof. Harry Cayton, who said our idea of ‘professionalism’ itself needs to evolve. Instead of attributes limited to oneself, it needs to incorporate relationships with patients, with teams, with knowledge, and with society.
The issue is complex and the time is short.
However, I am certain that over the next three days, your deliberations will help us advance together for a future-ready health workforce.
I would like to close not by asking, but by urging. Let us continue to work together, in solidarity, to share experiences, evidence and innovation. Through this, we can strengthen human resources for health, and make more resilient health systems, in our South-East Asia Region.
I wish you productive and successful deliberations over the next three days, and look forward to being appraised of the outcomes.
Thank you.