Is COVID-19 a turning point for the health workforce?

Abstract

[Extract]. In 2015, the United Nations issued the Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, which highlighted the need to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all across the lifespan. Goal 3 aims to make sure everyone has access to health and health coverage and, in 2019, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the political declaration of the highlevel meeting on universal health coverage reaffirming that “health is a precondition for and an outcome and indicator of the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development”. The High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth identified that investments in the health and social workforce can spur inclusive economic growth. Achieving Goal 3 requires health services that are accessible (available and affordable), culturally acceptable and that provide quality care by well-trained health workers. The World Health Organization (WHO), however, estimates a worldwide projected shortfall of 18 million health workers by 2030, mostly in low- and lower-middle income countries. Countries at all levels of socioeconomic development face –to varying degrees– difficulties in employment, deployment, retention, and performance of their workforce due to chronic underinvestment in education and training of health workers and the mismatch between education and employment strategies in relation to health systems and population needs. [...]