Health faces workforce crisis: report

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Monday 29th April 2013

 PAPUA New Guinea faces a health workforce crisis, says a World Bank report launched in Port Moresby last Friday.

The “PNG Health Workforce Crisis: A Call to Action” report said the crisis was due to the constrained training system for new health workforce cadres, rapid aging of the existing workforce and the demand for services over the next 10 to 20 years as a result of the increase in population. 

Health secretary Pascoe Kase, when responding to the report, asked: “What is the right number of people who should be recruited in the sector to match the population?”

He posed the question to representatives of key government agencies that were present to witness the event, saying the government must start preparing to meet the needs of the health workforce. 

He said a technical team had been established to plan for the sector.

“The plan consists of two phases – phase one is the arrest plan which is expected to be presented to the government by June and phase two is the long term workforce plan anticipated to be completed by December,” Kase said.

He said the department anticipated that it would cost the government about K650 million over the next 30 years to develop and implement the workforce development plan.