The global Coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing health workers’ strike has reignited the debate for reforms in the health sector through the Health Service Commission (HSC).
Industry players argue that the commission will create a centralized mechanism for managing human resources for health and the necessary professional competence to make decisions pertaining health services.
Standardizing management of healthcare workers will eliminate recurrent crises that have chocked the health sector for years. This should be treated as urgent.
The proposed Commission should handle coordination issues affecting health workers such as capacity, access, discipline, deployment, recruitment, equitable distribution, and termination.
According to proposals by health workers, the commission will register all trained health workers and develop promotion criteria to ensure retention of experienced workforce.
Despite the present challenges, health workers are putting up a brave fight to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, an invisible but lethal virus. They say the biggest challenge faced so far is stigmatization.
There is need to ensure proper support for frontline workers (see County Health section). A ministerial conference has also concluded that the devastating impact posed by the COVID-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call for African countries to bolster their health systems.
The ministers—and representatives from African countries– expressed these sentiments during the opening of this year’s annual World Health Organisation (WHO)Regional Committee for Africa meeting held in Brazzaville, Congo. (see Global Health section).
