12 December 2024—On UHC Day, WHPA is releasing two statements outlining its calls for governments to invest in health professionals in order to progress towards universal health coverage (UHC). The statements come as WHO member states are deliberating the content of a resolution on the health workforce to be discussed at the WHO’s next Executive Board on 3-11 February 2025 and which could determine workforce-related decisions at next year’s World Health Assembly.
“WHPA is calling on WHO member states to invest in health professionals to deliver safe, high-quality primary health care (PHC) in order to achieve UHC,” said Catherine Duggan, Chair of WHPA and CEO of FIP. The statements have been shared directly with the WHO delegates of the five countries leading the draft resolution.
To create a PHC-enabled workforce, it is essential to prioritize investment in health professionals, as there are risks to overemphasizing community health workers (CHWs) as a solution to health workforce shortages. While CHWs have a role to play in PHC models, it must be in the context of a fully supported professional health workforce.
In its statements, the WHPA highlights the following benefits of investing in health professionals for PHC and UHC:
- Health professionals ensure the protection of the public and quality of care
- A successful PHC workforce is an integrated, multidisciplinary workforce
- Supervision of CHWs requires more investment in the professions
- Quality care by health professionals is a cost-effective solution
- Avoid erosion of the professional health workforce pipeline
- Multidisciplinary teams mean more comprehensive, effective and personalized care, improved patient outcomes and are an efficient use of increasingly scarce resources
The WHPA statements also emphasize the foundational importance of holistic primary health care and multidisciplinary teams to achieve UHC. People-centred health services that consider the whole person, including psychological, social and environmental factors, are essential, as are robust referral systems between different health professionals and between all levels of health care: primary, secondary, and tertiary; local, regional, and national.