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Improved salaries, enabling environment could stem health workers deficiency – PWR
The local health sector is currently deficient by some three percent of its requisite number of health care workers. This daunting state of affairs has been linked to the wanting salaries that some levels of health workers are paid.
Public Health Minister, Ms. Volda Lawrence
PWR, Dr. William Adu Krow
This observation was on Saturday highlighted by Country Representative of the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation [PAHO/WHO], Dr. William Adu-Krow.
Dr. Adu-Krow was at the time sharing his concerns about the move by some health workers to opt for greener pastures rather than serving their country.
“We are losing about three percent of our health care workers in terms of nursing and midwifery and we need to stem that,” he asserted.
He disclosed that in addition to ensuring that health workers are allowed to operate in an enabling environment, “I think the other thing we have to look at, as a country, is salaries. I think for a midwife who is going to be visiting homes, for nurses and Community Health Workers who need to know everything about their catchment area, there is need to have them love without thinking, “Ok, I think I need to go to another country.”
Dr. Adu-Krow’s remarks in this regard were forthcoming even as the local PAHO/WHO Office collaborated with the Public Health Ministry to host a series of activities to commemorate World Health Day 2018. World Health Day is observed annually on April 7.
This year the day was observed under the theme: ‘Universal health coverage: everyone, everywhere.’
The theme, according to the PAHO/WHO Representative [PWR], is one that emphasises the notion that, “we want everyone irrespective of where you are living – you could be living in some distant part of the Rupununi, or somewhere in Georgetown – you should be able to enjoy good quality health [care] and when you need it, without having to dip into your pocket to pay for it.”
But according to Dr. Adu-Krow, there are some people who are very sick in some parts of the world and are in dire need of health but are unable to access same. He however asserted, “Thank God, you can go to every [public] health entity for free [here] and that is a great stride.”
In order to achieve this goal, he noted that the public health sector has been making significant use of public health professionals the likes of midwives.
He however, noted that the operation of such experts could be limited if the availability of an enabling environment is limited.
“I think what we need a lot more of, is an enabling environment whereby when we have more midwives trained, the system is ready to accept them. They should have a house near the hospital, they should have the things that they need to practise in their profession,” Dr. Adu- Krow explained.
According to him, currently there are ongoing training programme for midwives and also nurses with the view of improving the pass rate thereby increasing the number of these professionals who are certified to practice within the public health system.
Even as she stressed government’s commitment to ensuring that the nation has access to quality health care, Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence, made it clear that the onus is still on individuals to make their health a priority.
“Do something! Don’t sit down and wait to get diabetes like your grandmother or mother but start to take care of your own body and your family and then you can share with your friends and communities,” stressed the Public Health Minister.
According to WHO, modifiable behaviours such as tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and the harmful use of alcohol, all increase the risk of chronic non-communicable diseases [NCDs] which are known to kill 40 million people [equivalent to 70 percent of all deaths] each year.
NCDs, WHO has noted, tend to be of long duration and are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behaviour factors. The main types of NCDs are cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and stroke, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma and diabetes.
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