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News/Event Item
Massive Global Health Worker Shortage Targeted at UN-Sponsored Meeting
Jan. 10, 2008
With nearly 60 countries, mostly in Africa, facing crippling health care shortages, and the global deficit of workers in the sector put at 4 million, the United Nations is pushing ahead with a so-called task shifting programme to quickly train primary care personnel.
At the first-ever international conference on task shifting this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, co-sponsored by the UN World Health Organization (WHO), some 350 health ministers, public health leaders and HIV/AIDS experts are seeking to scale up access to HIV/AIDS treatment and, at the same time, expand the global health workforce by moving tasks to less specialized health workers to free up the time of doctors and nurses.
Task shifting maximizes the role of primary community-led health care, delivered closer to patients by an integrated team of health care professionals. "Doctors and nurses are essential but countries cannot afford to wait years while they complete their training," WHO Assistant Director General Anders Nordström told the opening session.
© 2008 ReliefWeb
For full article, visit:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EGUA-7AQN3X?OpenDocument
category: News from Other Sources : General Health News
contributed by Liza Nanni on 11 January 2008
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