HELP WANTED: Confronting the health care worker crisis
MSF began providing antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2000 and has today reached over 80,000 people in more than 30 countries. However, efforts to further increase access to treatment and maintain and improve quality of care are coming up against a wall due to the severe shortage of health workers. This is contributing to unnecessary illness and death.
The impact of the human resource crisis is witnessed by MSF across southern Africa, the epicentre of the AIDS pandemic. Health workers are overwhelmed, overworked, and exhausted.
MEDIA RESPONSE TO THE MSF HELP WANTED REPORT click here
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Read the MSF report HELP WANTED Confronting the health care worker crisis to expand access to HIV/AIDS treatment: MSF experience in southern AfricaClick here
Introduction
"I have been working as a nurse since 1971 and in my opinion what we are seeing now is a chronic emergency. There are too many patients for too few nurses and the pressure is too much. read the introduction
Coping with health worker shortages: lessons and limits National policies (government and professional councils) play a determining role in the extent to which strategies to decentralise care can be implemented. Whether or not a government will allow nurses to initiate and prescribe ARVs, for example, determines the pace of decentralisation and scale-up of ART.
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Retaining health workers: the basics Benefits and incentives are also important factors that affect retention. Pensions, medical aid/insurance, hardship/rural allowances, education allowances for children, and transport allowances, are some of the ways in which health staff can be encouraged to stay. Read more
Patients without providers: emergency response needed even in MSF programmes where significant external resources are brought in, our ability to scale up, maintain quality, and address specific medical challenges is being stretched to the limit.
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Country profiles: treatment access and human resource constraints
