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Health

United Nations adopts Two Landmark Global Compacts on Migrants and on Refugees

04 April 2019
Health workers caring for refugees

In December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UN Global Compact for Migration and the UN Global Compact on Refugees. The compacts were adopted after two years of intensive consultations and negotiations. PSI actively engaged in advocacy and lobbying during these processes and welcomed their adoption.

Liberia: Trade union actions on decent work for people with disabilities

04 April 2019
Daintowon Domah Paybayee, Advocate for persons with disabilities in Liberia

The Liberia Labor Congress held a joint workshop with ILO ACTRAV and the ILO Abuja office on decent work for persons with disabilities in December 2018. Since the end of the civil war in 2003, the nation has made significant progress towards decent work for all, but still has progress to make on eliminating social, economic and cultural injustice for persons with disability.

Government set to reform Kenya’s health system

04 April 2019
Sicily Kariuk, Cabinet Secretary for Health and James Wambugu, Chair of the panel of experts.

Kenya’s National Health Insurance Fund is undergoing reform, and the government has called on an independent panel of experts to assist. The objective is for the country to progress to universal health coverage. The main issue must be the building of a strong public health system, putting people over profit.

Unions, Social Inequalities and the Senegalese Health System

04 April 2019
Dr. Mbaye Kamara

From the 1980s, the Senegalese health system has evolved from a relatively modern and efficient system into a two-tiered system of privatised and commercialised healthcare delivery. Private provision has become increasingly widespread, while user fees and pharmaceutical charges finance a significant part of the public health sector.

25 Years After Apartheid: Health Inequities Persist in South Africa

04 April 2019
Young workers at the PSI People’s National Health Insurance Conference.

Although South Africa’s health system has undergone many positive changes in the last 25 years, social inequalities in health are widening across social groups and races. 50 million South Africans access the under-funded public health system while just over 8 million have access to well-resourced private care that is steeped in corruption.

Korea: KHMU Campaigns Against For-Profit Hospitals

04 April 2019
KHMU members protest against the for-profit hospital in Jeju.

The Korean Health and Medical Union (KHMU) will organise a series of campaigns this year to defend the right to quality public healthcare and for workers’ rights in the sector. At its 21st anniversary ceremony and regular congress which took place on 27-28 February, the union decided to include all-out mobilisation against the expansion of for-profit hospitals and against precarious work.

Community Health Workers in Pakistan – a struggle for union registration

02 April 2019

The Community Health Workers programme in Pakistan, commonly known as Lady Health Workers, LHWs programme was started in 1994 with a staff of nearly 30,000 women. Over the years, the programme has expanded to more than 125,000 employees deployed in all districts of the country. They serve as the cadre that links first-level care facilities to communities.

India federal budget pushes private insurance in health

02 April 2019
Enrolling for National Health Insurance in India. Photo: ILO

Every year, around 55 million Indians are pushed into poverty due to catastrophic healthcare expenditures. And this is only one of the symptoms of a broken system that is also entrenched in ethical issues over inappropriate treatment in private facilities, overcrowded and underfunded public facilities and deteriorating work conditions.

Towards World Health Day 2019

25 March 2019

7 April has been celebrated since 1950 as World Health Day (WHD). This is to commemorate the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1947, and quite importantly to draw global attention to important issues in international health. WHO provides institutional leadership for WHD as a global health awareness day. This includes setting a theme.

The Long Term Plan for the NHS in England

24 March 2019
Health staff discuss the long term plan with UK Prime Minister Theresa May

The UK National Health Service has just published its latest plan for how the NHS in England should be organised over the next five years and beyond. This 136-page document represents a vision of a future health service that is based more on treating patients outside of hospitals, with a larger role for new digital technology and, in theory at least, a much smaller role for market competition.