World Health Day - April 07, 2006

WELCOME ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF AFRO GLOBAL ALLIANCE CHIEF AUSTIN ARINZE OBIEFUNA ON THE OCCASION TO OBSERVE THE WORLD HEALTH DAY 2006 April 7

Your Excellency, John A. Kufuor
The President of Ghana
The Minister of Health
Director, Ghana Health Service
The Administrator PANTANG Hospital
The District Officer Abokobi
The members of the Press
Government officials present
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is with joy and privilege that I, on behalf Afro Global Alliance and other health workers to welcome you to the World Health Day 2006.

I must thank you all for finding time to honour our invitation despite your crowded engagements. It is very difficult to mention the array of distinguished personalities here present, however I welcome you all.

World Health Day 2006 gives us all an opportunity to celebrate the remarkable contribution to human health and development made by health workers as adopted from World Health Organization.

“We should seize this opportunity to create a momentum that compels governments and communities to develop and implement a health workforce policy that enhances equity in health - universal access to essential health care. The World Health Day calls upon the governments, civil society, individuals and entire international community, to better understand and take action to plan for production of skilled health workers and improve the working environment and well-being of health workers.

All over the world, national health systems are finding it difficult to train, sustain and retain their health workers. In developed countries, as populations age and chronic conditions increase, there is an ever-growing demand for health workers. That need is increasingly being met by recruitment of trained workers from developing countries; a trend which aggravates the resource shortfall there.

Without a strong health workforce, advances in healthcare cannot reach and benefit the people who need them. Effective ways of preventing and treating disease require assessment, delivery and monitoring by health workers. The capacity to respond to the threat of pandemic human influenza, global efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals, and all our efforts to address priority diseases are threatened by health workforce shortages.

These shortages are not limited to health practitioners, but extend to educators and trainers, managers and support staff. Poor distribution of resources, wasted and unused skills and migration of health workers are making a bad situation worse”.
Let us therefore “Work together for Health” of Africa’s peoples.

I thank every one of you here for answering this call and may God reciprocate this kind gesture in your entire human endeavor. My prayer is that God will reward you abundantly.

To you, our esteemed guests we sincerely thank you for making our day. May the Good Lord grant you journey mercies as you travel back to your respective destinations.

Thank you and May God bless you.

http://businessweekafrica.com/afro-global-alliance-supports-pantang-hospital/