Core Data Human Resources for Health: Stocks and Flows ­ Education ­ Management. Anguilla 2011. Tracking Regional Goals for Human Resources for Health: A Shared Commitment

ABSTRACT

In its 2006 annual report, the World Health Organization (WHO) described the Human Resources for Health (HRH) situation among its 192 member states. This report recognized the widely varying data availability, with many non-OECD nations having limited access to information on their health workforce. National data were collected as part of this effort, using three approaches WHO national surveys conducted through its regional and country offices, contacting various national administrative sources, or data "compiled from a previous version of the WHO's global database on the health workforce". Data from many Caribbean nations were collected using this third approach, which obtained very little detail, with information that had not been updated for a number of years. To improve this paucity of information, the Human Resources for Health Unit of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) has partnered with the Ministries of Health in the Eastern Caribbean Countries (ECC) to support the systematic collection and country-level analysis of HRH data as part of the Region's 10-year commitment to health workforce development. The purpose of this data collection project was to establish a Core Data Set for the countries of the Caribbean region comprising the required information to establish the current status of HRH in each country. This core data investigation took place in Barbados in November 2007, and following on from this, a number of the Eastern Caribbean Countries conducted the same project study. There are seven Eastern Caribbean countries involved in this project (Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla and Montserrat), which has proceeded in two work phases Phase 1, Data collection for Core Data Set, and Phase 2, Data collection to establish baseline indicators for the 20 Regional Goals for Human Resources in Health. This report describes the first initiative in Anguilla and its result. (AU)