Dr Vanessa Kerry, CEO of Seed Global Health, calls on Commonwealth governments to invest in transforming and scaling up health professional education to help address the shortage of health workers and enable skilled health professionals to better meet the needs of the populations they serve.
“Health professionals are the heart of the health system and the most important levers of change within it.”
Despite making significant advancements in addressing global health challenges over the last three decades, there is still much to be done. There is no panacea for fixing the health problems we face – healthcare delivery is ultimately, at its core, a human-centred intervention. To effectively tackle the challenges, we must invest in people.
The WHO estimates that a global shortage of skilled health professionals will increase to 18 million by 2030, and the impact of this is further worsened by the fact that the distribution, competencies and experiences of the available physicians, nurses and midwives are often inadequately suited to the health needs of the populations they serve. Recognising that health challenges are increasingly complex, we need to reimagine pre-service education and in-service training for students and practitioners.
The 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa is a chilling and dramatic example of why health workers matter…
Dr Vanessa Kerry
CEO, Seed Global Health
