Health Workforce Surge and Protection

Delivering the diagnostic, treatment, and vaccine interventions for COVID-19, while maintaining essential health services, puts significant pressure upon an already overstretched health workforce. Health and social care workers, both salaried and volunteers, at the facility and community level, face multiple challenges due to COVID-19 including pre-existing workforce shortages, limited availability of PPE and basic infection prevention and control facilities, lack of adherence to clinical guidance, infections, quarantine and self-isolation, strikes, and caring of infected friends and family. While data is incomplete, many countries and regions have reported high levels of COVID-19 related morbidity and mortality among health workers.

This workstream focuses on protecting the health and social care workers (the majority of whom are women), including the public, private and voluntary sectors.  It will work with the Clinical Care workstream to address gaps in PPE procurement/deployment and build on existing work by partners on matters including health worker protection and basic Infection Prevention and Control.

LIST OF RESOURCES:

•  Addressing the international migration of health workers

•  Health Workforce Estimator (HWFE) - tool