Why Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) are essential?
The WHO Emergency Medical Team initiative was launched to enable organizations and Member States to strengthen their capacities and health systems by coordinating the deployment of quality-assured medical teams in the event of an emergency.
In the event of a disaster or epidemic, the faster the response, the better the outcome. Therefore, the EMT initiative is so focused on helping each country set up its own teams, which can arrive where they are needed in the shortest possible time.
The general objective of EMT initiative is to help strengthen a country's capacity to deal with national emergencies and epidemics, thus contributing to its health security through the deployment of clinical and public health teams respecting minimum quality standards. A second objective is to help national health authorities integrate the coordination of national and/or international EMTs within their existing public health emergency operations centres (PHEOCs) or similar structures of coordination.