[VNPH Family] PHA-Exch> WHO: 10 Facts on Health Workforce Crisis

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Vern Weitzel <vern.w...@gmail.com>
crossposted from: "[health-vn discussion group]" heal...@cairo.anu.edu.au


http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/health_workforce/en/index.html

The World Health Organization has issued a list of 10 facts on the global
health workforce, to coincide with the First Global Forum on Human
Resources for Health, held earlier this month in Kampala.

Here are the 10 Facts:

Fact 1 - Health workers work
Health workers are people whose main activities enhance health. They
include health care providers and people who manage and support delivery
systems. Worldwide, there are 59.8 million health workers. Without them,
prevention and treatment of disease and advances in health care would not
reach those in need.

Fact 2 - Shortage of health workers
In 2006, WHO stated that a country with less than 2.3 doctors, nurses and
midwives per 100 000 people is undergoing a critical health worker
shortage. This is the case in 57 countries (36 of which are in sub-Saharan
Africa).

Fact 3 - One million health workers missing in Africa
The global health worker shortfall is over 4.2 million, with 1 million
health workers needed for Africa alone.

Fact 4 - Sub-Saharan Africa has 25% of the global disease burden
Sub-Saharan Africa faces the greatest challenges. It has 11% of the
world's population and carries 25% of the global disease burden. Yet the
region has only 3% of the global health workforce and accounts for less
than 1% of health expenditures worldwide.

Fact 5 - Americas have 10% of the global disease burden
In comparison, North America and South America, which together have 14% of
the world's population but only 10% of the global disease burden, employ
37% of the global health workforce and are responsible for over 50% of the
global health expenditure.

Fact 6 - Pandemics
Many factors have led to the health workforce crisis, including growing
economic disparities between countries and upsurges in new and old
pandemics. Such pandemics pose special challenges to workers; for example,
HIV/AIDS is a 'triple threat' to health workers, causing far bigger
workloads, psychological stress, and the daily risk of HIV infection.

Fact 7 - Innovative trainings
Training a nurse takes at least three years; training a doctor can take
more than six. If action to expand the health workforce is taken now,
effects will only begin to be felt years later. Innovative methods
(distance learning, task shifting or community health worker programmes)
can shorten this delay effect, but there is no "quick fix" to this
problem.

Fact 8 - Migration
Health worker migration is increasing due to disparities in working
conditions, wages and career opportunities. One in four doctors and one in
20 nurses trained in Africa later migrate to work in more developed
countries. In Africa and some Asian countries, a public sector physician's
monthly wage can be less than US$ 100; in higher resource countries,
monthly salaries can exceed US$ 14 000.

Fact 9 - Funding
WHO estimates that a rapid health workforce scale-up by 2015 would cost
US$ 447 million on average per country per year. WHO advocates for 25% of
the US$ 12 billion (2004 figure) devoted to international health aid to be
spent on the health workforce.

Fact 10 - Global Health Workforce Alliance
The health workforce issue crosses many sectors - no single entity can
successfully address it on its own. The Global Health Workforce Alliance
has brought together a coalition of health leaders, civil society and
workers to explore solutions to this crisis at the first Global Forum on
Human Resources for Health in Kampala, Uganda in March 2008.

***

In my view, these 10 facts concisely describe the shortfall and
maldistribution of health workers. But they fail to address the needs of
the *existing* health workforce. I would therefore like to propose the
addition of an 11th fact - arguably the most important of all, and indeed
fundamental to the numerical crisis described above:

Fact 11 - The needs of existing health workers have for too long been
ignored. Health workers have a range of basic needs that must be met in
order to be enabled to deliver safe, effective care. These needs include
Skills, Equipment, Information, Structural support, Medicines, Incentives
and Communication facilities. These needs are being largely ignored, and
efforts to meet them have a weak evidence base and are uncoordinated. A
SEISMIC shift is required by governments and the international community
to better understand and meet the needs of health workers, especially
those in the 57 crisis countries.

 Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of the Global
Healthcare Information Network,

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: UNNIKRISHNAN PV unn...@yahoo.com

Millions of Iraqis lack water, healthcare-Red Cross:

 

Highlights: (full report : http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/iraq-report-170308/$file/ICRC-Iraq-report-0308-eng.pdf )

 

·        Iraq's health care system as "now in worse shape than ever."

·        Many children, women, and elderly and disabled people, remained extremely vulnerable.

·        At least a third of their average $150 monthly income buying clean drinking water.

·        Iraqi hospitals lack beds, drugs, and medical staff.

·        humanitarian situation in most of the country remains among the most critical in the world

 

 

 

 

GENEVA, March 17 (Reuters) - Five years after the United States led an invasion of Iraq, millions of people there are still deprived of clean water and medical care, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday.

 

In a sober report marking the anniversary of the 2003 start of the war, which ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and unleashed deep sectarian tensions, the humanitarian body said Iraqi hospitals lack beds, drugs, and medical staff.

 

Some areas of the country of 27 million people have no functioning water and sanitation facilities, and the poor public water supply has forced some families to use at least a third of their average $150 monthly income buying clean drinking water.

 

"Five years after the outbreak of the war in Iraq, the humanitarian situation in most of the country remains among the most critical in the world," the ICRC said, describing Iraq's health care system as "now in worse shape than ever."

 

The Swiss-based agency is mandated to help victims of war and monitor compliance to international rules of war, enshrined in the Geneva Conventions.

 

Its report said tens of thousands of Iraqis have disappeared since the start of the war. The conflict was grounded in faulty U.S. intelligence suggesting Saddam was hiding weapons of mass destruction. No such arsenal was ever found.

 

"Many of those killed in the current violence have never been properly identified, because only a small percentage of the bodies have been turned over to Iraqi government institutions such as the Medical-Legal Institute in Baghdad," it said.

 

MATCHING DNA SAMPLES

 

The ICRC is providing forensic equipment to medical and legal institutes enabling them to examine DNA samples and match them with those of families searching for their loved ones.

 

Iraqi violence rates have fallen 60 percent since last June, but the U.S. military commander there, General David Petraeus, says the security gains are fragile and easily reversed.

 

Declining civilian casualties have been hailed by Iraqi and U.S. military officials as proof that new counter-insurgency tactics adopted last year have been working.

 

But Beatrice Megevand Roggo, the ICRC's head of operations for the Middle East and Africa, said those who have fled their homes to escape violence in Iraq, including many children, women, and elderly and disabled people, remained extremely vulnerable.

 

"Better security in some parts of Iraq must not distract attention from the continuing plight of millions of people who have essentially been left to their own devices," she said.

 

Tens of thousands of Iraqis -- nearly all men -- are in detention, according to the ICRC. They include 20,000 inmates at at the country's largest detention facility at Camp Bucca in the south near Basra, which is run by U.S.-led multinational forces.

 

The ICRC regularly visits people held by the multinational forces in Iraq, the Kurdish regional government and the Iraqi justice ministry -- altogether some 5,000 detainees last year.

 

It is still seeking a comprehensive agreement for access to all prisoners held by Iraqi authorities.

Iraq is the ICRC's largest operation worldwide with an annual budget of 107 million Swiss francs ($106 million). It deploys 600 staff in the country, including 72 expatriates. (Editing by Laura MacInnis and Jon Boyle)

 

 

 

 

[Nhan La]

Is it your duty to send such an undigestable lump of messages

On 3/18/08, Claudio Schuftan <csch...@phmovement.org> wrote:

[Vietnam Public Health Forum]

 

---
PHA-Exchange is hosted on Kabissa - Space for change in Africa
To post, write to: PHA-Ex...@phm.kabissa.org
Website: http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/pha-exchange


_______________________________________________
Archive at  http://mail.saigon.com/pipermail/vnph
or http://groups-beta.google.com/group/VNPH

To subscribe/unsubscribe, please kindly send a request to outlo...@gmail.com

General Info at
http://www.le.org/mailman/listinfo/vnph

--
_________________________________________________________

Sublieutenant La Thanh Nhan, BPH.

Dept. of Science, Technology and Environment, VMMU

Phung Hung Road, Hadong City, Vietnam.

Mobile:  (+84) 913525629

Email:    latha...@gmail.com
          
             lahan...@yahoo.com.au