Health officials: Lack of medical personnel needs attention
The medical partnership programme with the Cuban Government may have offset the impact of an alarming deficiency in healthcare providers in Belize, but tonight local authorities maintain that the issue still requires urgent attention.
Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Officials hope that by the year 2015, a healthy number of doctors, nurses, and other care providers fill local hospitals and clinics. At today?s official observance of World Health Day in Belize, authorities expressed concern at the obvious shortage of human capital in the medical field. According to the experts, the disturbing lack of personnel is highlighted in the nursing sector, as many trained staff are being lured to the United States by better pay and benefits.
Dr. Kathleen Israel, P.A.H.O./W.H.O. Representative
?Over the years the issues highlights have mainly been illness oriented. The theme of this year?s celebration is therefore somewhat of a departure from the usual and addresses an issue that underpins the very foundation of the health services … and that is the issue of human resources for health.?
?In my own words, I want to say that while it is important to rationalise human resources in any sector and in any discipline, it is imperative to do so for the health sector, because what is at stake are not only issues of efficiency and effectiveness, but issues of life and death.?
The call to action aims to mobilise both local and international players to pool human resources through policies and intervention programmes. As part of the effort, a three-step training programme was launched for environmental health officers as well as a committee called the Observatory for Human Resources.
Dr. Kathleen Israel
?Developing countries and indeed some developed countries have come to the realisation that urgent steps need to be taken to avoid a collapse of the health system with detrimental consequences for the population by focussing on the availability of adequate quantity and quality of health workers to meet national needs.?
National needs that Prime Minister Said Musa says his government is committed to address.
Prime Minister Said Musa
?There are total of two thousand one hundred and eighty-four health workers from both the public and private sectors in Belize. From the policy makers to health planners, specialised physicians, nurses, nurses aides, pharmacists and technicians, the clerks, the cooks, the janitors, who on a daily basis and in sometimes difficult circumstances, give selflessly of their time and energies to ensure that the health needs of our country are met.?
?So today as we honour these health professionals, let us not forget the challengers that they face on a daily basis. These challenges are compounded by the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the increase in the chronic non-communicable diseases, which imposed a huge workload and expose them to considerable risk.?
In the short term, five critical challenges have been singled out for development including long range policies and plans, and the strengthening institutional capacity and leadership, placing the right people in the right jobs, regulating the migration and displacements, and perhaps most importantly, ensuring effective collaboration between health and education institutions.
