Uganda hosts Global Forum on Human Resources
Mar 02, 2008
FOR a few days this week, health-care “brains†will pour into Uganda instead of flowing out to other countries. If only it would happen for more than a few days.
By Irene Nabusoba
FOR a few days this week, health-care “brains†will pour into Uganda instead of flowing out to other countries. If only it would happen for more than a few days.
The temporary reversal will come when the Global Forum on Human Resources brings 1,000 government, health, development, civil society and academic leaders to Kampala to explore what can be done about the large-scale migration of health professionals from poor to developed countries.
Entitled Action on Health Workforce: the Time for Action is Now, the conference is organised by the Global Health Workforce Alliance, a partnership of leaders from government, international agencies, non-governmental organisations and research institutions.
“This will be the second biggest meeting to take place in Uganda, after CHOGM,†said Dr Steven Mallinga, the health minister.
“It is critical for world leaders to act now,†says Prof. Francis Omaswa, a Ugandan who is the executive director of the Geneva-based institution, which is administered by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He said it is appropriate to hold the high-profile event in Africa, which is the centre of the health-workforce shortage.
Africa, which has 25% of the global burden of disease, has only 3% of the world’s health workers, according to the WHO.
Fifty-seven countries, most of them in Africa and Asia, face severe health workforce shortages that call for a total of 4,250,000 health professionals to fill the gap.
The conference will focus on retention and migration of healthcare professionals, unfavourable and challenging working conditions, inequalities in access to basic health needs, new killer diseases threatening global security, training, sector financing and shorter life expectancies.
Sponsors hope it will provide a platform for sharing and exploring solutions, and galvanise a global response to the human resources crisis in the health sector.
“The objectives include sharing knowledge and experiences on what works and what does not work, building networks to mobilise a movement on health systems and human resources,†says Omaswa.
“Also to be discussed, are issues of leadership, funding and management of health services, education and training which will culminate into global actions.†The results will be assessed every two years.
If forum participants want to see the consequences of the brain drain, they will not have to travel far from their conference centre. Dr. Tom Mwambu, the president of Uganda Medical Association, says the shortage of skilled health workers in Uganda is severe.
“We cannot provide even the simplest low cost interventions of health care. Ideally, we should be seeing an average of 20 patients a day. We are seeing 40, and in some specialties like pediatrics, 80.
This may lead to misdiagnosis and unnecessary referrals because we may not have the time to do proper assessments,†Mwambu says.
Recent outbreaks like cholera, Ebola, Marburg and meningitis led to deaths that could have been avoided within the past year if there had been more health staff.
In addition, sudden natural disasters like floods and landslides quickly overwhelm local and national health systems already suffering from staff shortages causing enormous deaths.
“Should another epidemic break out, it is easy to be missed,†Mwambu says. “This definitely leads to more mortality and morbidity rates.â€
The average male can expect to live just 48 years and the female 51 years, compared to 80 and 81 years in the US and the UK, respectively, according to WHO.
For every 1,000 babies born in Uganda, 30 die within the first 28 days of life, compared to just two in Belgium and three in Canada. And a person’s chances of dying in an accident are 154 in 100,000 in Uganda, more than four times the rate in Norway.
Prof. Nelson Ssewankambo, the dean of Makerere University Medical School says the university trains an average of 100 doctors every year — a number he called “pathetic†compared to developed countries.
The head of the World Bank’s global HIV/AIDS programme, Debrework Zewdie, says the biggest challenge in the global fight against AIDS is no longer money for drug research and treatment, but the lack of access to health services and shortage of manpower in nations worst-hit by the disease.
“There is a desperate shortage of doctors, health care workers and researchers, who would not only deliver treatment services but also coordinate operations,†Zewdie says.
Dr Elizabeth Madraa, manager of Uganda’s AIDS Control Programme, adds: “We keep training them and they go to NGOs or abroad, where they can get better money, then we have to train again.â€
FOR a few days this week, health-care “brains†will pour into Uganda instead of flowing out to other countries. If only it would happen for more than a few days.
The temporary reversal will come when the Global Forum on Human Resources brings 1,000 government, health, development, civil society and academic leaders to Kampala to explore what can be done about the large-scale migration of health professionals from poor to developed countries.
Entitled Action on Health Workforce: the Time for Action is Now, the conference is organised by the Global Health Workforce Alliance, a partnership of leaders from government, international agencies, non-governmental organisations and research institutions.
“This will be the second biggest meeting to take place in Uganda, after CHOGM,†said Dr Steven Mallinga, the health minister.
“It is critical for world leaders to act now,†says Prof. Francis Omaswa, a Ugandan who is the executive director of the Geneva-based institution, which is administered by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He said it is appropriate to hold the high-profile event in Africa, which is the centre of the health-workforce shortage.
Africa, which has 25% of the global burden of disease, has only 3% of the world’s health workers, according to the WHO.
Fifty-seven countries, most of them in Africa and Asia, face severe health workforce shortages that call for a total of 4,250,000 health professionals to fill the gap.
The conference will focus on retention and migration of healthcare professionals, unfavourable and challenging working conditions, inequalities in access to basic health needs, new killer diseases threatening global security, training, sector financing and shorter life expectancies.
Sponsors hope it will provide a platform for sharing and exploring solutions, and galvanise a global response to the human resources crisis in the health sector.
“The objectives include sharing knowledge and experiences on what works and what does not work, building networks to mobilise a movement on health systems and human resources,†says Omaswa.
“Also to be discussed, are issues of leadership, funding and management of health services, education and training which will culminate into global actions.†The results will be assessed every two years.
If forum participants want to see the consequences of the brain drain, they will not have to travel far from their conference centre. Dr. Tom Mwambu, the president of Uganda Medical Association, says the shortage of skilled health workers in Uganda is severe.
“We cannot provide even the simplest low cost interventions of health care. Ideally, we should be seeing an average of 20 patients a day. We are seeing 40, and in some specialties like pediatrics, 80.
This may lead to misdiagnosis and unnecessary referrals because we may not have the time to do proper assessments,†Mwambu says.
Recent outbreaks like cholera, Ebola, Marburg and meningitis led to deaths that could have been avoided within the past year if there had been more health staff.
In addition, sudden natural disasters like floods and landslides quickly overwhelm local and national health systems already suffering from staff shortages causing enormous deaths.
“Should another epidemic break out, it is easy to be missed,†Mwambu says. “This definitely leads to more mortality and morbidity rates.â€
The average male can expect to live just 48 years and the female 51 years, compared to 80 and 81 years in the US and the UK, respectively, according to WHO.
For every 1,000 babies born in Uganda, 30 die within the first 28 days of life, compared to just two in Belgium and three in Canada. And a person’s chances of dying in an accident are 154 in 100,000 in Uganda, more than four times the rate in Norway.
Prof. Nelson Ssewankambo, the dean of Makerere University Medical School says the university trains an average of 100 doctors every year — a number he called “pathetic†compared to developed countries.
The head of the World Bank’s global HIV/AIDS programme, Debrework Zewdie, says the biggest challenge in the global fight against AIDS is no longer money for drug research and treatment, but the lack of access to health services and shortage of manpower in nations worst-hit by the disease.
“There is a desperate shortage of doctors, health care workers and researchers, who would not only deliver treatment services but also coordinate operations,†Zewdie says.
Dr Elizabeth Madraa, manager of Uganda’s AIDS Control Programme, adds: “We keep training them and they go to NGOs or abroad, where they can get better money, then we have to train again.â€