Kenya should ignore donor restrictions and employ health workers needed urgently countrywide, an assistant minister has said. The country needs 10,000 health workers to offer improved services, Health assistant minister Enock Kibunguchy said.
Human Resources
Ignore the World Bank on health, says minister
Mwai E, The Standard - Kenya
ILO to launch new Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work
New data shows some 23 million workers infected with HIV worldwide
Citing new data showing some 23 million workers
worldwide now infected with HIV/AIDS, the Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Juan Somavia plans to formally launch a pioneering Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work at the U.N General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in New York on 25-27 June. The ILO Code of Practice will provide workers, employers and governments with new global guidelines - based on international labour standards - for addressing HIV/AIDS and its impact at the enterprise, community and national levels where most infections occur. It will also help boost efforts to prevent the spread of HIV, manage its impact, provide care and support for those suffering from its effects and staunch stigma and discrimination which arise from it.
Further details: /newsletter/id/28656
Imbalance in the health workforce
Imbalance in the health workforce is a major concern in both developed and developing countries. It is a complex issue that encompasses a wide range of possible situations. This paper aims to contribute not only to a better understanding of the issues related to imbalance through a critical review of its definition and nature, but also to the development of an analytical framework. The framework emphasizes the number and types of factors affecting health workforce imbalances, and facilitates the development of policy tools and their assessment.
Impact of HIV on the health workforce
The devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on the general population in Africa is now well recognised but the extent to which it affects the health workforce is less understood and appreciated. Recently two researchers from the Support for Analysis and Research in Africa (SARA) project, under the oversight of the Academy for Educational Development (AED), looked at the dual impact of HIV/AIDS on the health workforce and on health care systems. The result is a streaming video, produced by the World Bank, which records a discussion of the findings of this research with the SARA researchers, Dr. Stephen Kinoti, a former professor of paediatrics at the University of Nairobi, and Oscar Picazo, a senior health economist on leave from the World Bank's Africa region. The video includes a discussion of the real and perceived risks health care workers face with the pandemic and human resource factors that influence the supply of services, costs and data.
Impact of HIV/AIDS on SA health sector is severe, says study
South Africa's health sector stands to lose a large percentage of its workforce to HIV/AIDS, warns a report by the country's Human Sciences Research Council and the Medical University of South Africa. The study was conducted in four South African provinces - KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Mpumalanga and North West. "We found that an estimated 15.7 percent of health workers employed in the public and private health facilities located [in the four provinces] were living with HIV/AIDS in 2002," the report said.
Impact, regulation and health policy implications of physician migration
Although the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries generally favour long-term policies of national self-sufficiency to sustain their medical workforce, such policies usually co-exist with short-term or medium-term policies to attract foreign physicians. As this is likely to continue, there is a need to create a global framework that enforces physician migration policies that confer benefits on home and host countries. In the long-term, OECD member countries need to put in place appropriate education and training policies rather than rely on physician migration to address their future needs.
Impatient outpatients - breakdown of the referral process in Lusaka, Zambia
In many developing countries, the outpatient departments of national referral hospitals are swamped by patients from the local urban population. Do these people bypass primary health centres and go straight to outpatient departments when seeking care? Are perceptions of limited and poor quality primary level health services to blame?
Implementation of the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel
Perfilieva G: World Health Organisation, 2010
In this presentation, the author assesses implementation of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Code for Ethical Recruitment. She reports that 32 countries achieved valuable steps towards implementing the Code. In some of these countries, actions have taken to communicate and share information across sectors, measures have been taken to involve all stakeholders in decision making processes, including actions considered to introduce to laws or policies, records are maintained of all recruiters authorised by competent authorities to operate within their jurisdiction and good practices are encouraged and promoted among recruitment agencies. In some of these countries, migrant health workers enjoy the same legal rights and responsibilities as those domestically trained, as well as the same opportunities as domestically trained to strengthen their professional education, qualifications, career development , and health personnel are recruited internationally, using mechanisms that allow to assess the benefits and risks associated with employment positions. Furthermore, 22 countries have mechanisms to regulate the authorisation to practice by internationally recruited health personnel and maintain statistical records and 11 have a database of laws and regulations related to health workforce migration and recruitment.
improving access to information for healthcare workers in developing and transitional countries
Between October 1999 and November 2000, WHO's Department of Health Information Management and Dissemination worked with participants of the Health Information Forum to elaborate ways in which WHO and other health information organizations might work together more effectively to improve access to information for healthcare workers in developing and transitional countries. Based on a series of five structured meetings and a questionnaire survey of health information organizations, the following document from the WHO-HIF collaboration is intended as a basis for the cooperative development of needs-driven action plans in each of six priority areas. Proceedings of meetings and survey reports are available at http://www.inasp.org.uk.
Improving motivation among primary health care workers in Tanzania: a health worker perspective
Manongi RN, Marchant TC, Bygbjerg CI: Human Resources for Health 2006, 4:6
In Tanzania access to urban and rural primary health care is relatively widespread, yet there is evidence of considerable bypassing of services; questions have been raised about how to improve functionality. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of health workers working in the primary health care facilities in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania, in terms of their motivation to work, satisfaction and frustration, and to identify areas for sustainable improvement to the services they provide. The primary issues arising pertain to complexities of multitasking in an environment of staff shortages, a desire for more structured and supportive supervision from managers, and improved transparency in career development opportunities. Further, suggestions were made for inter-facility exchanges, particularly on commonly referred cases. The discussion highlights the context of some of the problems identified in the results and suggests that some of the preferences presented by the health workers be discussed at policy level with a view to adding value to most services with minimum additional resources.