The World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA) has called for continued support and real action to support health professionals and other health and care workers in 2021.
The presidents of the five organisations that make up the WHPA, representing 34 million health professionals globally, have marked the start of the Year of the Health and Care Workers with a call for concrete action help safeguard the underfunded, COVID-affected health systems during the Year of the Health and Care Workers. The WHPA call comes as the 148th WHO executive board meets on 18 January 2021.
In the WHPA video message Annette Kennedy, International Council of Nurses president, said: “We have all left a difficult year behind us. As health professionals, most of us have been fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of us got ill ourselves, and there is a long list of health professionals who have died because they were assisting their patients.”
Emma Stokes, World Physiotherapy president, also said in the video: “We got a lot of applause from our fellow citizens. We appreciated the recognition. However, what we urgently need is real support and, most importantly, action. We need more than kind words and applause in the evening.”
Watch the WHPA presidents' video message
The simple but practical recommendations made by the WHPA, include:
- asking lawmakers to better invest in healthcare, healthcare education and careers, and pandemic preparedness
- following government advice: avoiding close contact with others, keeping physical distance, washing hands, wearing a mask, and ventilating rooms regularly
- getting vaccinated.
