Comments on id21 viewpoints

Meeting the needs of healthcare providers

id21 readers respond to Neil Pakenham-Walsh's viewpoint on the needs of healthcare providers

From Beatrice Muraguri, Ministry of Health, Kenya

Health Information is the link between different cadres in the health care system. It is particularly important to address the information needs of health workers. They require to be linked with the community they serve and this can only be done through an understanding of their needs. This understanding will help to address many areas of healthcare such as health seeking behaviour, patients' confidence and attitude towards health workers, and in doing so will contribute towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

As is well known, health information is used to measure our performance as healthcare workers. It is therefore crucial for us as health workers to be well informed so that we may be a strong link between the health care service and the community we serve. The truth of the matter is that health workers hardly use the health information they themselves generate. This results in poor planning and of course derails efforts to address global health problems through initiatives such as the MDGs.

I am currently working in Papua New Guinea where am helping to establish an EPI (Extended Programme on Immunisation) health system. I was amased to see how a well equipped health worker can make things happen using health information. In one of the provinces a health worker used the information he generated to carry out social mobilisation, long before the national level distribution of posters and banners for a forthcoming Supplementary Immunisation Activity. The health worker made simple brochures which were placed in market places and at health facilities that showed reductions in immunisation coverage. This increased community awareness and allowed people to see the need to improve coverage.

Let us equip our health workers with information they need, and encourage them to use the information they themselves generate, through global health information discussions online, and all other means available to motivate them.

Beatrice Muraguri, 31st March 2008
Ministry of Health
Health Management Information Systems
Nairobi
Kenya
bemura68@yahoo.com

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