World Health Day 2006

April 7, 2006: To coincide with the global recognition of World Health Day, today FIP officially launches its Global Pharmacy Workforce and Migration Report – a Call for Action. The launch is a timely compliment to World Health Day, which this year focuses on the theme “Working Together for Health”, and which will see an effort from health stakeholders worldwide to raise awareness of the increasingly compromised situation surrounding the global health workforce.

Over the past year the FIP workforce and migration study has been a major focus of the Federation, and has involved the contribution of over 100 individuals from pharmacy professional and regulatory bodies, training institutions and Ministries of Health. The report, the first of its kind to profile workforce issues specifically related to the profession of pharmacy, provides a current overview of important issues affecting the pharmacy work force such as regulation and description, shortages, distribution imbalances, and Continuing Professional Development. With this report, FIP urges pharmacy professional and regulatory bodies, policy makers, pharmacy education providers, and pharmacists to actively document the profession and build an evidence base from which to access credible support for change, as well as develop national strategies to address workforce issues. It is hoped that with this data a precedent is set for government and professional bodies to dedicate contin uous attention to the issue.

This strategy holds true for the FIP as well, whose overall aim is to increase collaborative efforts with and amongst Member Organisations so that pharmacy workforce issues may be appropriately and effectively examined, and that future directions for all aspects of the profession may be mapped out. It is becoming increasingly accepted, opportunely, that the pharmacy profession has an essential and integral role within all aspects of healthcare on local, national, and global levels, and it is imperative that human resources continue to strengthen in order to meet the needs of the population and growing expectations of the profession.

FIP invites all to view the report at: www.fip.org/hr

PS: I co-authored this...Hee