350 million children never see a health worker by Save the Children Alliance 12:20pm 18th Sep, 2011   Our report, No Child Out of Reach, shows 350 million children will never see a health worker in their lives.    Children living in the UK will see a doctor or a nurse at least ten times in their first five years. But in Africa and Asia millions of children die every year from easily preventable diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea, simply because they have no way of being seen by a trained health worker if they fall sick.    We need to secure funding to fill the global shortfall of 3.5 million health workers that is threatening the lives of millions of children across the world.    In Africa – where people shoulder a quarter of the world’s disease burden – children have access to just 3% of the world’s health workers.    Children are five times more likely to die before their fifth birthday if they live in countries such as Nigeria, Ethiopia and Liberia – which fall below the World Health Organization health worker threshold (of 2.3 health workers per 1000 people) – than children living in countries with enough health workers.    “It"s simply not acceptable for a child to die because a midwife or a nurse is out of reach,” said Brendan Cox, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Save the Children.    “Training health workers is simple and inexpensive, yet their impact is immense,” he added. “Hundreds of children’s lives will be saved by the vaccinations a health worker administers, or by the trained help they can give to pregnant mothers.”    “World leaders must put an end to this scandal and ensure that all children, regardless of where there are born, are able to see a health worker when they need it the most.”    The report shows that progress is possible with the right political will and investment.    In low-income countries, such as Bangladesh and Nepal, greater investment in community health workers has reduced the number of children dying. Both countries are now among the few on track to meet the UN’s global goal to cut the child mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015.    Our report looks at the five key issues underlying the crisis:    Lack of education and training in low-income countries. In the poorest countries only a small proportion of children go to school and are able to qualify as a health worker. Medical training centres that do exist are under-resourced. 173,000 doctors are trained in Europe each year compared to just 5,100 in Africa.    Poor pay and incentives leading to brain drain. More money and support available for health workers in rich countries prompts many in poorer countries to leave. 81% of Liberian nurses and three-quarters of Mozambican doctors work abroad.    Those health workers in poor countries who stay behind face the prospect of working in an under-staffed, poorly-equipped hospital, often with huge case loads and away from their family.    Ineffective use of health workers. The health workers that do exist are often not working in the places where they are needed the most, and many lack the skills, resources and equipment they need to save children’s lives. In many countries with high numbers of children dying, health workers are concentrated in relatively better-off urban areas, out of the reach of children in the most remote areas.    Chronic under-investment in health from both rich and poor countries. There is a two-thirds funding shortfall for health workers. The UK currently spends 25% of its health aid on health workers. However, not all rich nations follow suit. The role of developing countries is also crucial: in 2001 countries across Africa pledged to spend 15% of their national budgets on healthcare – only eight have done so.    Ineffective funding. Health funding comes through a variety of channels at different points in time, making it very difficult to plan for the future and to invest in the long-term projects needed to recruit and train health workers.    No Child Out of Reach says that world leaders must realise that their unmet promises on health will costs lives.    “Both rich and poor countries must put health workers at the top of their agenda,” said Brendan Cox.    “With more money to train urgently-needed nurses, midwives and community health workers around the world, we will save millions of children’s lives.” Visit the related web page
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