19 Jan 2012 • Various Switzerland

A global responsibility: To remedy the shortage of health personnel in Switzerland

- Published by Darcissac, Marion

Terre des hommes is active in questions of health staff training in its countries of intervention, but also in Switzerland, in cooperation with the University Hospitals of Geneva (UHG) and the Central University Hospital of Vaud (CHUV). Terre des hommes is a member of the health network Medicus Mundi Switzerland and a signatory of the manifesto.

Source: Medicus Mundi Suisse

A wide coalition launches a manifesto about the shortage of health personnel

In a manifesto launched on January 16th, 2012, a wide coalition has been mobilised so that Switzerland assumes its responsibility towards the global shortage of health personnel. In this manifesto, it shows its commitment that Switzerland should increase training health professionals, guarantee good working conditions and intensify its international engagement to get healthcare for the poorest of the poor.

The Swiss health system is confronted by a growing need for qualified personnel to which it is not able to respond alone. Every year there is a shortage of some 5,000 new health professionals trained in Switzerland. This lack compromises the supply of adequate health care for the population. The situation is not unique to Switzerland: the lack of healthcare personnel is a serious problem world-wide. Because of this, recruiting staff qualified abroad will not be an appropriate solution. The World Health Organisation has recognised this elsewhere: in May 2010, it adopted a code of practice for the international recruitment of health personnel.

On the initiative of the Swiss Association of nursing staff (ASI) and Medicus Mundi Switzerland, 26 organisations for mutual aid, professional associations and syndicates have launched a manifesto. This coalition demands that Switzerland be better engaged at several levels to face up to the dramatic lack of health personnel and to encourage applying the WHO code of practice.

A long-term engagement rather than a short-term vision

In this manifesto, the signatory organisations criticise the fact that, up to the present date, political authorities have neglected to defuse the situation and have not taken measures to deal with it, for example by creating sufficient places to study medicine and nursing care. And yet it has long been evident that there is not enough nursing staff in Switzerland, and not for demographic reasons. “The economically developed countries such as Switzerland rest on very short-term logic when they seek to compensate for their own deficit of health personnel by recruiting, directly or indirectly, in southern countries,” notes the manifesto.

The manifesto also mentions that it is necessary to act at various levels. Switzerland should thus develop better instruments for steering and planning, improved investment in training and the guarantee of attractive work-places to secure the loyalty of the professionals in the health sector. It is also a matter of strengthening and using better the skills of migrants living in Switzerland who work in the health sector. Furthermore, so as to take into account the global dimension of the problem, it is necessary that health personnel in developing countries get the best professional perspectives on the spot, and so are not compelled to emigrate. Switzerland can contribute here in an important way by committing itself with increased means to improve the health systems in the poorest countries.

Further information on the Manifesto

Responsible Organisations
Swiss Nurses Association
Network Medicus Mundi Switzerland

Signatory organisations
Amnesty International Switzerland, Association Jumelage d’hôpitaux d’enfants Bienne-Haïti, Swiss Association of Ergotherapists, Swiss Nurses Association, FMH Swiss Medical Association, Swiss Orthoptics SVO/ASO, Association professionnelle suisse des techniciennes et techniciens en analyses biomédicales, Enfants du Monde, Fédération suisse des associations professionnelles du domaine de la santé (FSAS), Swiss Federation of Midwives, Terre des hommes Foundation, IAMANEH Switzerland, Swiss Lung League, Médecins du Monde Switzerland, Network Medicus Mundi International, Network Medicus Mundi Swiss public health, Union of Swiss Syndicates USS, Swiss Red Cross, Sexual Health Switzerland, SolidarMed, Swiss TPH, Syna, Syndicate of public services ssp, Travail Suisse, WIDE Switzerland.