Alliances in Egypt and Malaysia discuss the future of the healthcare workforce as part of effective responses to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Following the publication of situational reports on the strengthening of the healthcare workforce in the context of NCDs and universal health coverage (UHC) in their countries, the national NCD alliances in Malaysia and Egypt hold high-level roundtable events to discuss policy challenges, gaps and opportunities to strengthen their national healthcare workforce as part of the NCDs and UHC response.

Malaysia

On 25 January 2022, NCD Malaysia, together with the Malaysian Medical Association, held a high-level roundtable consisting of representatives from the Ministry of Health, Members of the Parliament, healthcare associations, and civil society organisations.

Participants were briefed on the findings of the NCD and the Healthcare Worker report, which was developed in 2020 flagging ten key recommendations have been made to help improve the issues surrounding healthcare workers, as well as the National Advocacy Agenda of People Living with NCDs launched in March 2021.

They then identified advocacy priorities based on the recommendations on the report with key areas focused on the themes of task-shifting and contracting; ensuring patient-centredness and technological and non-technological innovation in the care of people living with NCDs in Malaysia.

Egypt

The Egyptian NCD Alliance organised a high-level NCDs Summit in December 2021 consisting of two roundtable discussions on digital health and on the healthcare workforce, as well as an interactive meeting with civil society.

The roundtable discussion on the healthcare workforce included representatives from the WHO country office, Ministry of Health, professional associations, and private sector who discussed a vision to support health professionals working on NCD and UHC programmes and services and fulfil their needs with physicians’ retention being one of the key problems reflecting on the quality of health services in Egypt.

The discussion was centred on possible policy solutions that could provide mutual benefits for both the provider and the beneficiaries of the Egyptian health system, in an effort to strengthen the health system and advance towards UHC.

The varied representation of the roundtables provided a well-rounded discussion and value insights to inform the next steps of action to advance the NCDs and UHC response.

The Egyptian NCD Alliance have used the meeting to inform a new Policy Brief on Healthcare Workforce outlining key recommendations for policymakers. While NCD Malaysia will use the results of the meeting for the development of a consensus statement agreeing on the prioritisation of key recommendations.

Both alliances are encouraged to use the results of the discussions and the evidence generated by the reports as a basis for future action and advocacy in the area to ensure an effective response to NCDs in the context of achieving UHC.

The situational analyses were conducted with support from the NCD Alliance’s Advocacy Institute NCDs and UHC Accelerator Programme, which aims to increase the capacity of established NCD alliances to drive effective in-country NCD and UHC advocacy. The work of alliances in Egypt and Malaysia is supported thanks to NCDA’s partnership with Viatris.