Brazzaville, 10 December 2013 -- With the growing shortage of skilled health workers in the African Region, health experts have recognized the need for innovative ways of increasing access to skilled health care. At the end of a two-day Regional Consultation on Task Shifting held at the WHO Regional Office, participants reached a consensus to formalize the implementation of ‘task shifting’ as one way of addressing the health workforce crisis while giving priority to the national strategic plan to scale up skilled health professionals.

Task shifting involves redistribution of health care tasks to make efficient use of available workers as a way of increasing access to key health services in countries with severe health workers shortage. It comprises moving tasks from health workers with higher levels of training to health workers with lower levels of training. This might involve, for instance, transferring tasks from nurses to auxiliary nurses or from specialist doctors to general practitioners- an approach that has been promoted by countries and partners in different ways and to a variety of extents in the Region.

Participants identified relevant areas of research which need to be carried out and agreed on priority actions for implementing ‘task shifting’. They called on countries to, among others, establish a national framework to formalize and institutionalize task shifting.

Speaking at the end of the Consultation, the Director of the Cluster of Health Systems and Services at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, Dr Bokar Toure, underscored the importance of task-shifting to address the Region’s human resource gap. He said: “WHO remains committed to engage and collaborate with countries and all partners and stakeholders to ensure implementation of the recommendations from this consultation.’’

The Consultation took place from 5 to 6 December 2013 and was attended by experts including Ministry of Health policy makers, regulatory bodies of selected professional groups, training institutions, partner agencies, researchers and representatives from professional associations.

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For more information, please contact:

Technical Contact: Dr Martin Ekeke Monono - Email: ekekemononom [at] who.int (ekekemononom[at]who[dot]int); Phone: 47-241 39312

Media Contact: cam [at] afro.who.int (cam[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int); Phone + 47-241 39100