Established in 2015 the Asia-Pacific Parliamentarian Forum on Global Health (the Forum) is a platform for parliamentarians to exchange ideas, build political will, and enhance capacities and foster collaboration in driving sustainable action for health
At the first day of the forum both the Minister of Health and Medical Services, Honorable Dr Paul Popora Bosawai and the Chair of the Parliamentarian Health Committee Honorable Morris Toiraena, delivered their interventions highlighting the major challenges and bottlenecks on health workforce in terms of limited workforce, recruitment, distribution, incentives, migration and discipline.
The inequity and disproportional distribution of the health workforce in Solomon Islands is till a major bottleneck thereby affecting service delivery, says Honorable Dr Paul Bosawai. In placing emphasis on this matter, Honorable Dr Paul Bosawai stated that “there is a tendency for the bulk of the health workforce to remain in the capital and provincial urban centres due to limited staff accommodation in the rural areas and other social issues where a nurse cannot be posted to a rural clinic because the partner (husband/wife) has a job in town and or that there are lack of other social services in the rural areas such as infrastructure, market and banking services. This is why most of the health workforce are in the capital and provincial centres”
Meanwhile, as aligned to the National Health Strategic Plan 2022-2031, the Ministry of Health has been working on the review of its Health workforce policy and strategy for the past months with the support of WHO.
The 8th Asian Pacific Parliamentarian Forum on Global Health will conclude today.
Ends//
-MHMS Press Release
