The World Health Professions Alliance speaks for more than 41 million health professionals worldwide, assembling essential knowledge and experience from the key health professions in more than 130 countries.
3 April 2023—The WHPA has issued a press release to mark the publication of a WHO-WHPA report which provides strong evidence of the extent of damage caused to healthcare professionals during the Covid-19 pandemic.
24 February 2023—WHPA made the voice of health professionals heard at the Fifth Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety by publishing an NGO statement highlighting that health workforce safety is patient safety.
6 December 2022—The WHPA represented the interests of health professionals in a statement made at the third meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) to develop a WHO instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
8 November 2022—To mark the signing of an historic Memorandum of Understanding between the 5 members of the WHPA and the World Health Organization (WHO), the partners have issued a joint press release outlining the need for a collaborative approach to investing in the health workforce and emphasizing the shared goals of the partner organizations.
WHPA’s recent report "What the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed" highlights the evidence and knowledge gathered by its five organizations on the impact of the pandemic on health professionals worldwide. We emphasize the urgent need to protect and safeguard health professionals and thus to improve the resilience of health systems in health emergency planning and response, and to strengthen mental health and psychosocial support for health professionals, both during and after pandemics and emergency situations.
To progress on UHC, there must be adequate and sustainably financed health workforce development, with a focus on integrated service delivery for primary health care. Governments and employers must provide this workforce with positive practice environments, especially during emergencies. We also welcome the call for national health systems to be inclusive of civil society.
The WHPA appreciates the proposal to establish a Global Health Emergency Council and underlines that civil society organizations must be involved in its work. We strongly support the development of a cohesive multidisciplinary and professionalized health emergency workforce. We emphasize the need for decent, safe, and responsive working conditions for the health workforce to deliver better health outcomes.
We are concerned by the inadequate access to quality NCD care and its insufficient inclusion in essential health benefit packages. 122 countries reported a disruption of NCD care due to the COVID-19 pandemic in a survey to WHO. If the burden of NCDs is to be effectively addressed, it is imperative to adopt a collaborative, interprofessional, community-based and person-centred approach.