Public as the part time health workers: Need of the hour

There are a number of health programmes organized by private NGOs, Government bodies and WHO. But the awareness towards health among the people, especially in the African and South Asian regions, is still not at the best. There might be plenty of reasons, for which the entire global health work force is exploring for. The numbers of such new projects are in steep rise.  Most countries are facing health worker shortages, geographical and skill mix imbalances and negative working environments. A number of interventions have been used to attempt to recruit and retain rural health care workers. UN’s Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research has recently called for proposals on incentives to attract and retain qualified health workers to under-served areas within low and middle income countries.

 

Solutions can be achieved quite easily when the health issues are addressed by the public itself rather than the professionals. People working in healthcare sectors and the patients have to be motivated to act as part-time health workers. Even the students in health sciences can also be encouraged to spend their leisure time. Apart from preventing health crisis, the introduction of the public as part-time health workers will also help in achieving other aspects of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. The very recent Times of India initiative, ‘Teach India’ encourages the public who can contribute their time towards teaching under privileged children with the help of almost 60 of India’s committed NGOs, corporate, schools and social organizations.