{"id":774,"date":"2016-11-29T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2016-11-29T09:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imperialighi.wordpress.com\/?p=774"},"modified":"2019-03-29T10:41:34","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T10:41:34","slug":"health-professional-education-opportunities-to-accelerate-progress-towards-universal-health-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/2016\/11\/29\/health-professional-education-opportunities-to-accelerate-progress-towards-universal-health-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"Health professional education: Opportunities to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"health_professional_education_report-1\"<\/a>International efforts to achieve global development goals in health have raised concerns about the availability of a well-trained and effective health workforce. As a result, the health workforce has been the focus of many global initiatives in the last decade that have called for urgent action to overcome the so-called \u2018health workforce crisis\u2019. Despite some progress, the health workforce challenges remain a critical bottleneck in achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) goals in most countries.<\/p>\n

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The current demand shortage of millions of health workers is expected to double in 15 years, with the largest shortages predicted to occur in the regions of East Asia and the Pacific (8.3 million) and South Asia (3.2 million), accentuating the global imbalances in the distribution of health workers. Compared to the health workers\u2019 needs-based projections, the scenario is even more troublesome. In low-income countries (LICs), for example, both the demand for and the supply of health workers are projected to remain significantly below the needs-based threshold. As a result, these countries will likely face shortages of health workers needed to provide basic health services and unemployment of health workers due to the limited capacity to employ the available supply of workers (insufficient demand).<\/p>\n

One of the reports being discussed at today\u2019s World Innovation Summit for Health<\/a> (WISH) focuses on these issues and offers ways in which to accelerate UHC through health professional education.<\/p>\n

Report focus<\/strong>\"Medical<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This report<\/a> aims to stimulate the global debate on how investments in the education of health workers can help accelerate progress towards UHC. The report acknowledges the positive, demand-side influences that arise from the adoption of reforms of health systems towards UHC and argues that these need to be extended to inform a renewal of investments\u00a0in health worker education.<\/p>\n

Four entry points are put forward as critical education investment areas:<\/p>\n