A new global partnership that will strive to address the worldwide shortage of nurses, doctors, midwives and other health workers was launched today. The Global Health Workforce Alliance will draw together and mobilize key stakeholders engaged in global health to help countries improve the way they plan for, educate and employ health workers. The Alliance will seek practical approaches to urgent problems, and will also serve as an international information hub and monitoring body.
Human Resources
New global alliance seeks to address worldwide shortage of doctors, nurses and other health workers
World Health Organisation, 25 May 2006
New Law to Stem Worrying Brain Drain
Gaomas S: New Era, 1 August 2007
The Namibian Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr Richard Kamwi, will urgently seek Cabinet approval of an agreement that would oblige doctors at State hospitals to be contracted for a stipulated period of time before going solo. The move is intended to stem the current tide where public sector doctors take advantage of existing loopholes tp migrate out or set up private medical practices while working for the State.
New research project: Mobility of Health Professionals
Mobility of Health Professionals (MoHProf): March 2009
Worldwide mobility of health professionals is a growing phenomenon, impacting the health systems of receiving, transit, and sending countries, so the need to develop European policies to adequately address these issues is urgent. At the same time, reliable and differentiated knowledge and findings as a basis for such policy are lacking. MoHProf will contribute to improving this knowledge base and facilitate European policy on human resource planning. The general objective of the project is to research current trends of mobility of health professionals to, from and within the EU. The project comprises four phases over a three-year period starting from November 2008. There will be four project meetings, starting with a kick-off meeting and project launch and concluding with an international conference, and roundtables as appropriate.
New wave of mass global migration expected
Immigration is an issue that elicits heated views from all sides of the political and economic spectrum. In the 21st century, how might we expect our lives and societies to be affected by changes in immigration? In Part One of a two-part series, economist Lant Pritchett argues that there are five irresistible forces setting the world up for a new wave of mass migration. Topping the list are the huge cross-national inequalities in wages and standards of living. Differences in labour demand across countries comprise another pressure promoting migration. Population growth imbalances also contribute to the trend, with aging populations of wealthy countries needing younger workers to help support national pension plans.
NHI and staff shortages: How can clinical associates help?
Doherty J: Health Policy South Africa, 9 November 2012
South Africa has begun producing a new type of health professional - a clinical associate. Clinical associates are people ideally suited to working in hospitals, helping doctors carry out some of their tasks – like dealing with emergencies and doing procedures. They don’t replace doctors or nurses – they work with them, sharing some of their workload, and allowing them to concentrate on the tasks for which only they are qualified. There is no doubt that more doctors and nurses need to be trained and recruited into the South African health system. But will this alone solve the country’s staff shortages? It takes less time to train a clinical associate. They can become very skilled at what they do because they focus on a special set of skills and are supervised by doctors. They are recruited from rural and disadvantaged communities. So, the author argues, clinical associates could do a lot to address staff shortages in the public sector, especially in district hospitals. Clinical associates are noted as a priority in the latest government human resource strategy but the future of clinical associates and the strategy of National Health Insurance need to become much more closely intertwined.
Nigeria: Doctors and Nurses Call Off Crippling 18-day Strike
Doctors and nurses in Nigeria Friday called off their 18-day strike action, called to protest against the government's failure to offer better conditions of service, according to report by the state-owned Federal Radio Corporation Network news.
NIH partners with PEPFAR to strengthen medical education in Africa
National Institutes of Health: 15 March 2010
The National Institutes of Health has announced a new initiative to strengthen medical education in sub-Saharan Africa, in collaboration with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The programme, called the Medical Education Partnership Initiative, is a joint effort of the Office of the United States Global AIDS Coordinator, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States Department of Defense and 19 components of NIH. This programme is in support of PEPFAR's goal to increase the number of new health care workers by 140,000, and will also serve the related objectives of strengthening host-country medical education systems and enhancing clinical and research capacity in Africa. Foreign institutions and their partners in PEPFAR-supported Sub-Saharan African countries are invited to submit proposals to develop or expand models of medical education. These models are intended to contribute to the sustainability of country HIV and AIDS responses by expanding the pool of well-trained clinicians. The awards will also build the capacity of local scientists and health care workers to conduct multidisciplinary research, so that discoveries can more effectively be adapted and implemented in their communities and countries. Nine programmatic awards are available.
No consensus on solution to brain drain
International and local delegates to the Scotland-Malawi conference held in Edinburgh, Scotland recently were alarmed with the shortage of health workers in the country which they said has worsened due to brain drain. But the conference failed to reach a consensus to curb the problem. Some delegates suggested that an immediate deportation of the health workers from the United Kingdom while others proposed that the UK should pay back.
No longer the poor relation
the orphanhood method for measuring AIDS-related mortality
What do we know about the impact of AIDS on mortality rates in developing countries? Do existing methods of data collection provide enough information? Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the UK Medical Research Council look into these questions.
Non-physician clinicians in 47 sub-Saharan African countries
Mullan F and Frehywot S: The Lancet 370(9605): 2158-2163, 22 December 2007
Many countries have health-care providers who are not trained as physicians but who take on many of the diagnostic and clinical functions of medical doctors. We identified non-physician clinicians (NPCs) in 25 of 47 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, although their roles varied widely between countries. In nine countries, numbers of NPCs equalled or exceeded numbers of physicians. In general NPCs were trained with less cost than were physicians, and for only 3–4 years after secondary school. All NPCs did basic diagnosis and medical treatment, but some were trained in specialty activities such as caesarean section, ophthalmology, and anaesthesia. Many NPCs were recruited from rural and poor areas, and worked in these same regions. Low training costs, reduced training duration, and success in rural placements suggest that NPCs could have substantial roles in the scale-up of health workforces in sub-Saharan African countries, including for the planned expansion of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programmes.