Health workforce in the Western Pacific

Health services are only as effective as the individuals responsible for delivering them. A health workforce remains critical to expanding effective health coverage and ensuring global health security. This requires investing in building and maintaining a competent health and social health workforce that is able to deliver people-centred integrated health services.

Health workers are central to attaining, sustaining and accelerating progress on universal health coverage (UHC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In the Western Pacific Region, the need to plan and manage a competent health workforce to adequately respond to the changing population health needs is well recognized. This includes the need to attract and retain workers, especially at the primary care level; reform education systems and competencies; improve health workforce performance and productivity.