Manila, Philippines, Wednesday, 27 November – In collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Government of the Philippines convened the Philippine-Pacific Partnership on Sustainable Health Workforce for Health Security. The Cook Islands delegation in attendance was led by the Honourable Vainetutai Rose Toki-Brown, Minister of Health, accompanied by Mr. Bob Williams, Secretary of Health, and Mr. Eden Brown, Senior Foreign Service Officer from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration.
The conference responds to discussions from the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting hosted by Tonga in August this year, where Leaders considered the ongoing health workforce crisis caused by shortages, uneven distribution, and outmigration of skilled professionals. The conference also builds on the 75th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for the Western Pacific, held a few weeks ago, which was chaired by Minister Toki-Brown and focused on achieving transformative primary health care systems – whereby the health workforce plays an integral role.
Globally, there are approximately 52 million health professionals, and in the Western Pacific, there are 15 million. However, in Pacific Island countries, there are just 14,250 healthcare professionals serving a collective population of more than 15 million people.
At the conference, representatives from 10 Pacific Island nations discussed challenges and opportunities in building sustainable health workforces. Key topics included strengthening investments in universal health coverage and health security, improving resilience to external shocks, and managing health worker migration. Participants shared best practices in education, employment, and retention while fostering partnerships to advance competency-based training and sustainable human resources.
The program included site visits to healthcare facilities in the Philippines, providing participants with insights into innovative approaches for workforce development and resilience and inspiring solutions to tackle workforce shortages, uneven distribution, retention, and reintegration challenges across the Pacific.
During her opening remarks, Minister Toki-Brown recalled that, “since and post COVID-19, we have struggled to run our hospitals and clinics due to an overworked and understaffed health workforce. However, in spite of these challenges, there is an opportunity for greater engagement from development partners to support our priorities, including to bolster and fortify our health workforce to bridge current gaps as a short term solution, as we also work on the mid to long term solutions to bring our local health workforce to the required levels.'
In line with these priorities, the Cook Islands delegation met with the Philippines Secretary of Health and representatives from the Foreign Ministry to discuss possible health workforce collaboration. The Cook Islands proposed the development and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at responding to both the immediate and long-term needs of the Cook Islands' health workforce. In the short term, it is proposed the MOU will facilitate the deployment of specialist doctors and nurses from the Philippines to address critical gaps in the Cook Islands’ primary healthcare system, thereby reinforcing and sustaining essential services while alleviating the pressures on the overburdened local workforce. In the long term, the MOU will focus on capacity development through tailored programs designed to enhance the skills and qualifications of local healthcare professionals.
Secretary Williams will progress on behalf of the Cook Islands government development of the MOU with counterparts from the Philippines Ministry of Health, supported by foreign affairs officials of both governments.
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