Policy Brief: Workforce and Safety in Long-Term Care during the COVID-19 pandemic
The pandemic has highlighted the long term care sector’s structural problems in terms of under investment, staffing and safety. Workers do not always have the appropriate health care training or ability to implement infection protocols or other prevention activities. Lack of sufficient, qualified medical staff and insufficient co-ordination with the rest of the health care system is also making the crisis more acute in LTC. Preventable safety failures are widespread. The brief highlights the importance of improving human resources and developing safety standards to improve prevention in LTC.
Publication: Who Cares? Attracting and Retaining Care Workers for the Elderly
Long-term care workers are overwhelmingly female and among the lowest-paid in the health care sector, with often difficult and demanding work conditions and high staff turnover. With OECD populations rapidly aging, the number of LTC workers will need to increase by 60% by 2040 – equivalent to an additional 13.5 million workers. Improved working conditions and reducing skills mismatches are key to address shortages while better co-ordination with health care will improve the outcome of care for elderly.
The OECD Health Database offers the most comprehensive source of comparable statistics on health and health systems across OECD countries. It is an essential tool to carry out comparative analyses and draw lessons from international comparisons of diverse health systems.
Health at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean 2020
Health at a Glance: LAC 2020 is the first Health at a Glance publication dedicated entirely to this region and was prepared jointly by OECD and the World Bank. The report calls countries to spend more and better on health to effectively face a major health emergency like COVID-19.
