Putting health workers at the centre of health system investments in COVID-19 and beyond

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the implications of chronic underinvestment in health workforce development, particularly in resource-constrained health systems. Inadequate health workforce diversity, insufficient training and remuneration, and limited support and protection reduce health system capacity to equitably maintain health service delivery while meeting urgent health emergency demands. Applying the Health Worker Life Cycle Approach provides a useful conceptual framework that adapts a health labour market approach to outline key areas and recommendations for health workforce investment—building, managing and optimising—to systematically meet the needs of health workers and the systems they support. It also emphasises the importance of protecting the workforce as a cross-cutting investment, which is especially important in a health crisis like COVID-19. While the global pandemic has spurred intermittent health workforce investments required to immediately respond to COVID-19, applying this ‘lifecycle approach’ to guide policy implementation and financing interventions is critical to centering health workers as stewards of health systems, thus strengthening resilience to public health threats, sustainably responding to community needs and providing more equitable, patient-centred care.

Pandemic preparedness and response: exploring the role of universal health coverage within the global health security architecture

“…Future mechanisms should leverage the Health Systems and Response Connector's model of country coordination teams, which consisted of multisectoral representatives at the national level, including ministries, multilateral offices, and civil society; these teams could be established as standing coordination bodies and integrated within national IHR focal points to support prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. Such an approach can help maintain essential health services, ensure sustainable workforce surge staffing through training and remuneration, 69 empower low-income and middle-income countries in bilateral or multilateral negotiations, and harmonise emergency and routine data to guide decision making. 70 , 71 , 72 …”

Education of the cancer surgical workforce: Gaps, priorities, and strategies

“…Overall, there is a critical shortage of the cancer workforce, including cancer surgeons, and this paucity of surgeons will not meet the global cancer burden by 2030 1–5,38 . Several strategies are essential to address this issue and can include: expanding educational training programs at the global level through global and national financing mechanisms, market‐labor economic policies, investing in educational institutions, improving content and quality of training curriculums at the local level, and promoting diversity within the surgical workforce.…”

“…As the global burden of cancer continues to rise, healthcare workers are critical to alleviate the growing burden. They are the stewards of the healthcare system, advocating and delivering quality clinical care to patients, working resiliently in under‐resourced systems, and providing equitable, patient‐centered care 3,5 …”

“…They are the stewards of the healthcare system, advocating and delivering quality clinical care to patients, working resiliently in under-resourced systems, and providing equitable, patient-centered care. 3,5 However, many countries are experiencing shortages in the workforce. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates a paucity of 10 million health workers by 2030, mainly in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs).…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how critical the workforce is to well-functioning health systems. 5 Effective well-developed countryspecific strategies and implementation of programs that build the cancer workforce are important to mitigate the rising cancer burden.…”