Department of Community Medicine, Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Department of Community Health Sciences, Bahria University Medical & Dental College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Hum Resour Health. 2022 Jan 28;19(Suppl 1):120. doi: 10.1186/s12960-021-00663-3.
Globally the occurrence of disasters has increased more than fourfold during the last three decades. The main concern for the healthcare system responding to a disaster is its ability to deal with the sudden influx of patients and maintaining a certain level of surge capacity. Health workers are considered to be the major driving force behind any health system. Their role gets even more prominent during disasters or public health emergencies. With the lack of information on the health workforce in the tertiary healthcare system of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where most of the disaster surge is diverted, it is difficult to plan and respond to accommodate the sudden surge of patients.
This was a mixed method cross-sectional survey conducted in all the tertiary care hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan to assess the current staffing situation and surge capacity based on the current workload. Annual service statistics of 2018 were collected from all the tertiary care hospitals of the province. WISN was piloted with only one healthcare staff category, i.e., for doctors in Ayub Teaching Hospital before assessment in all the tertiary care hospitals was undertaken.
Overall, there were 1215 surplus doctors in medical and allied specialties and 861 doctors in surgical and allied specialties in the tertiary healthcare system. The health care system has an acute shortage of 565 emergency department doctors. The tertiary healthcare system of KP has an overall shortage of 1099 nurses. Based on the WISN generated numbers for doctors, the tertiary care system of KP has a combined healthcare staff (doctors and nurses) that can manage an additional surge of 6.3% of patients with the current patient workload.
The tertiary health care system of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan does not possess the required ≥ 20% HR surge capacity indicating that the tertiary healthcare system is poorly prepared for disasters or public health emergencies. The lack of nursing staff, more than the doctors, is the major reason behind the lack of HR surge capacity of the tertiary health care system.
在过去的三十年中,全球灾害的发生次数增加了四倍多。医疗系统应对灾害的主要关注点是其处理大量涌入患者的能力,并保持一定水平的扩充能力。卫生工作者被认为是任何卫生系统的主要推动力。在灾害或公共卫生紧急情况下,他们的作用更加突出。由于缺乏关于开伯尔-普赫图赫瓦省三级医疗保健系统卫生人力的信息,而大部分灾害扩充都转移到了该省,因此难以计划和应对,以容纳患者的突然增加。
这是一项混合方法的横断面调查,在巴基斯坦开伯尔-普赫图赫瓦省的所有三级保健医院进行,以根据当前工作量评估当前人员配备情况和扩充能力。从该省所有三级保健医院收集了 2018 年的年度服务统计数据。在对所有三级保健医院进行评估之前,仅在阿尤布教学医院对一个卫生保健人员类别(医生)进行了 WISN 试点。
总体而言,在三级保健系统中,医学和相关专业有 1215 名多余的医生,外科和相关专业有 861 名医生。卫生保健系统急需 565 名急诊医生。开伯尔-普赫图赫瓦省的三级保健系统的护士短缺 1099 人。根据 WISN 生成的医生人数,开伯尔-普赫图赫瓦省的三级保健系统的医护人员(医生和护士)可在目前的患者工作量下,再管理 6.3%的额外涌入患者。
巴基斯坦开伯尔-普赫图赫瓦省的三级医疗保健系统不具备所需的≥20%的人力资源扩充能力,表明该三级医疗保健系统对灾害或公共卫生紧急情况准备不足。护士人员的缺乏,而不是医生的缺乏,是三级医疗保健系统人力资源扩充能力不足的主要原因。