Health workers all over the world are on the frontlines of a battlefield, risking their lives to save others. We call them our heroes but what are we doing to keep them safe?

The COVID-19 pandemic keeps reminding us of the extremely important role health workers play in keeping patients and communities safe and treating sick people. But quite unfortunately, these health workers are not always well equipped or well supported and the virus has exposed many of them and their families to high levels of risk.

Resolve To Save Lives, a global public health initiative, partnered with us, DRASA Health Trust and other organisations to launch a report describing the state of health workers globally and calling for immediate action to support them.

Under-resourced and overwhelmed, working in situations of extreme pressure, health workers around the world are making the ultimate sacrifice and paying with their lives. According to the report, as of September 2020 at least 7,000 health workers globally died fighting COVID-19 while others faced attacks from people not pleased with the public health measures put in place to control the virus.

The report outlines problems health workers currently face – from a lack of protective equipment and other tools to keep themselves safe to working without infection prevention and control training to not having psychological support to deal with the emotions and stress of working on the frontlines. The report also recommends urgent actions that stakeholders including governments, health systems, and funders must implement to address them.

These recommendations fall into 4 main categories:

1. Infection prevention and control
2. Health workforce training
3. Socioeconomic and legal support
4. Continuous monitoring and improvement and data collection

We call on every stakeholder to implement targeted strategies that will protect our health workers. We need to make an increased effort because: “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do” – Goethe

It is time to act. Click the image below to download the report.