World Health Day holds extra significance today as the world deals with a global health emergency

According to the World Health Organization, World Health Day emerged from the First Health Assembly, held in 1948. The day is celebrated annually on April 7 to raise global awareness on specific themes related to health in order to highlight an area of importance for the World Health Organization. This year, World Health Day honors the contribution of nurses and midwives, and the critical role they play in our global health care systems.

Friends of Medicare joins the call to celebrate our indispensable health care workers, especially in light of the added challenges of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Without ALL of our front line workers, the current response to the pandemic would not be possible. “The effectiveness with which our health care system has been able to deal with this global health emergency has been completely dependent on the professionalism, resilience, strength, and cooperation displayed by our front line workers day after day,” said Sandra Azocar, Executive Director of Friends of Medicare. 

We recognize that nurses and midwives are key medical professionals who have played an integral role through this health crisis by not only providing quality care and treatment, but in addressing anxieties of patients and their families. “Nursing is a calling, not just a profession – you are the first, and sometimes the last person someone sees at a time when they are at their most vulnerable,” stated Azocar. 

It is not enough to merely acknowledge the important role played by our front line health care workers, both in our everyday personal health care crises and our current global one. It is also imperative that they receive the full support of our governments – not least of all during COVID-19. Today should serve as a timely reminder to our governments that we must ensure our front line health care workers have all the resources they need to allow them to provide the best care possible on behalf of all Albertans, and people worldwide.

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