PSI Health Blog

Chile earthquake: need to invest in public health, support health workers

PSI affiliate Fenpruss asks the new Government to make the rebuilding of hospitals a priority and to reassess the Health Services Network

The Federation’s President stressed that “right now, it’s more important than ever to invest in Public Health”.

After the earthquake and tsunami that affected the southern central region of Chile, the National Federation of Health Service University Professionals (FENPRUSS) has stressed how urgent it is that action be taken quickly to deal with the effects of this disaster.

“During our visits to hospitals in the 8th Region, we saw how very seriously they had been affected. There are also several rural first aid posts that were not only affected by the earthquake and the tsunami, but also by the looting”, stated Claudio González Jara, the President of FENPRUSS.

Experts think it will take three yeas to return to normality, and it is thought that the Government will need to invest $3.600 million to rebuild the hospitals damaged by the earthquake.  

“This”, he added, “will mean having to plan afresh all our professional and health-related activities. Urgent action will have to be taken to deal with the challenges to public health which are to come: gastrointestinal illnesses due to lack of hygiene and water in overcrowded conditions, and mental health problems, with a population afraid of returning to their homes in case of aftershocks, and health workers affected by the constant worry about what may be happening in their homes while they work exhausting shifts”.

The Task Shifting Initiative

WHO guidelines for Task shifting

The global recommendations and guidelines on task shifting propose the adoption or expansion of a task shifting approach as one method of strengthening and expanding the health workforce to rapidly increase access to HIV and other health services. Task shifting involves the rational redistribution of tasks among health workforce teams. Specific tasks are move, where appropriate, from highly qualified health workers to health workers with shorter training and fewer qualifications in order to make more efficient use of the available human resources for health.

 

The recommendations and guidelines on task shifting have been developed in the context of effort to rapidly increase access to HIV services in order to progress as far as possible towards the goal of universal access to HIV services by 2010. However, the impact of task shifting would not be restricted to HIV service delivery. The implications for other essential health services, and the potential for wider health systems strengthening, are recognized throughout.

If you want to read the whole article document, please click here. : Download WHO_guidelines_For_Task_Shifting.pdf

Global Forum on Human Resources for Health

Close to 1,500 health experts, ministers of health, and representatives of health workers converged in Kampala, Uganda on 2-7 March for the first Global Forum on Human Resources for Health.
Participants discussed how to improve employment and working conditions of health workers, what measures to take to address the increasing flows of migration of health personnel from developing to developed countries, and how to retain and recruit new health professionals and strengthen health systems.