Statement by FDI; FIP, ICN, WMA, World Physiotherapy and IADR
Five of the organisations supporting this statement are members of the World Health Professions Alliance, which represents over 41 million health professionals worldwide.
The frequency, scale and complexity of health emergencies are ever increasing and they require global, multilateral action.
We welcome pandemic treaty`s commitments to provide frontline health professionals with priority access to medical products and personal protective equipment (PPE) during emergencies, and ensuring decent working conditions while protecting health professionals’ safety, mental health and wellbeing. We also support research that strengthens the health workforce before, during, and after emergencies
We call on governments to address the five core capacities in HEPPRR identified in this agenda item, and emphasize protecting health professionals from:
preventable adverse events in emergencies, where health professionals are among the most vulnerable; all forms of workplace violence—verbal, physical, and emotional. It is essential to implement preventative security measures, such as surveillance systems and emergency response protocols, for their safety.
Recent drastic funding cuts to the global health sector are having immediate disastrous impacts on the health workforce on the front lines, even in non-emergency contexts. This comes on top of persistent global health workforce shortages, albeit with some patchy progress. These cuts and shortages reduce the health workforce’s capacity for emergency response and leave no scope for scalable health workforce provision in emergencies.
WHPA calls on member states to invest in health professionals’ education, employment conditions, training and retention as a priority.