Geneva, 5 April 2023 (TDI): The World Health Organisation (WHO) is celebrating World Health Workers Week the agency tweeted on the 3rd of April. Every year World Health Workers Day is celebrated to honor the sacrifices of frontline workers.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the significant role played by health workers around the world in combatting the virus has given a renewed appreciation to the value of the work health workers do.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of health workers from all around the world were infected by the virus and thousands died. Many health workers were exhausted from overwork.
The single largest cause of disruption in health services was the shortage of health workers because it hindered the delivery of vaccines and life-saving tools to people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Director General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in his opening remarks shed light on it at the 5th Global Forum on Human Resources for Health on 3rd April 2023.
Also read: Covid-19 still a threat: WHO warns
A shortage of health workers led to additional pressure on existing workers affecting them physically and mentally.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, one in three health workers has suffered from anxiety and depression and almost half of them have experienced burnout.
He further said that not only poor countries are facing the problem of a shortage of health workers but rich countries like Switzerland are also not immune to the crisis.
According to a report published last year, Switzerland would face a shortage of forty-five thousand health workers in the coming years. WHO has estimated a projected shortage of 10 million health workers globally.
The working conditions for health workers in 160 countries are dissatisfactory. This has resulted in strikes at a record level.
The outline of WHO regarding health workers is to protect and invest, together which calls on the countries to protect health workers from discrimination and protect their labor rights.
It also calls for investing in decent working conditions for them and developing new models of education to address the shortage of health workers.
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