Human resources for health: overcoming the crisis.

In this analysis of the global workforce, the Joint Learning Initiative-a consortium of more than 100 health leaders-proposes that mobilisation and strengthening of human resources for health, neglected yet critical, is central to combating health crises in some of the world's poorest countries and for building sustainable health systems in all countries. Nearly all countries are challenged by worker shortage, skill mix imbalance, maldistribution, negative work environment, and weak knowledge base. Especially in the poorest countries, the workforce is under assault by HIV/AIDS, out-migration, and inadequate investment. Effective country strategies should be backed by international reinforcement. Ultimately, the crisis in human resources is a shared problem requiring shared responsibility for cooperative action. Alliances for action are recommended to strengthen the performance of all existing actors while expanding space and energy for fresh actors.

Pensar o Sistema Único de Saúde do século XXI: entrevista com Lígia Bahia / Considerations on the Sistema Único de Saúde in the twenty-first century: an interview with Lígia Bahia

A entrevista com Lígia Bahia aborda balanços feitos sobre os 25 anos do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) e analisa seus avanços,impasses e descaminhos. A entrevistada posiciona-se criticamente em relação a duas vertentes atuais do SUS, a que o vê como sistema que visa à equidade, e a que enxerga a igualdade como seu objetivo. Critica as ambivalências em decisões de várias esferas do governo em relação a randes grupos empresariais e a planos privados de saúde, antagônicos aos ideais do SUS. Avalia a participação dos médicos e de outras profissões de saúde no Sistema. Analisa ainda a emergência de políticas identitárias, ausentes na formulação do projeto da reforma sanitária, cuja ênfase era a igualdade.

This interview with Lígia Bahia explores evaluations of the first 25 years of Brazil’s Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) and analyzes the project’s progress, impasses, and missteps. Bahia is critical of both tendencies currently found within SUS: the one that sees the system as aimed at equity and the other posing equality as its goal. She criticizes the ambivalence that various spheres of government have displayed in their decisions regarding large corporate groups and private health insurance plans, which conflict with the ideas of SUS. She evaluates the participation of doctors and other healthcare professionals in the system. Lastly, she analyzes the emergence of identity politics, which are missing from the public health reform project, whose emphasis was on equality.