Through strengthening emergency care system and provision WHO supports countries to strengthen national emergency and trauma care systems and provisions, covering emergency care services at the scene of care, pre-hospital services, facility-based services and rehabilitation.
WHO support provided includes emergency care system assessments and capacity-building programmes.
Assessments
Emergency care system assessment provides a platform to generate a set of priority actions and development of an implementation roadmap to strengthen the emergency care system. An assessment tool is used to gather information about the national emergency care system from a wide range of stakeholders. The information can then be used to assess the existing system, identify gaps and develop consensus around priority actions for improvement. These steps then form the basis for development of an implementation plan to inform policy-makers, health system administrators, health care providers and other stakeholders. Assessments have been conducted in 10 countries in the Region: Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Libya, Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan and Tunisia.
Capacity-building
To build the capacity of hospital managers and improve emergency unit management a programme has been conducted in 6 countries: Egypt, Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Libya, Sudan and United Arab Emirates. A mentorship programme has also been established to support the application of course materials for the improvement of hospital emergency units.
The hospital emergency preparedness and response course is a component of the capacity-building programme for hospital staff in the Region to be able to respond to emergencies from all hazards. The main aim of this course is to support hospital managers and health professionals to build resilient hospitals. This course has been conducted in 4 countries: Bahrain, Islamic Republic of Iran, Libya and Sudan.
There is an increasing need for hospitals to be prepared for biological hazards and integrate their preparedness in the overall multi-hazard approach to hospital emergency preparedness. Building on the current hospital emergency preparedness and response training programme, a new course called “hospital emergency preparedness and response for infectious disease outbreaks” has been developed. It addresses specific capacity gaps in managing infectious disease outbreaks in hospitals with an emphasis on emerging and re-emerging infectious disease that have epidemic and pandemic potential. The training programme provides a platform to bridge the gap in enhancing a common and harmonized emergency response management system in hospitals by adopting an “all-hazards approach”, including outbreak hazards from infectious diseases. The training also promotes integrating hospital infection prevention and control teams and programmes in hospitals’ overall plans to manage emergencies.
