The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated operational planning guidelines in balancing the demands of responding directly to COVID-19 while maintaining essential health service delivery, and mitigating the risk of system collapse.
The guidelines include a set of targeted immediate actions that countries should consider at national, regional, and local level to reorganize and maintain access to high-quality essential health services for all., even when health systems worldwide are strained by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of the guidelines, countries are advised to identify essential services that will be prioritized in their efforts to maintain continuity of service delivery and make strategic shifts to ensure that increasingly limited resources provide maximum benefit for the population.
The WHO observes that the rapidly increasing demand on health facilities and health care workers threatens to leave some health systems overstretched and unable to operate effectively.
“The best defence against the outbreak is a strong health system,” stressed WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“COVID-19 is revealing how fragile many of the world’s health systems and services are, forcing countries to make difficult choices on how to best meet the needs of their people.”
Data from previous outbreaks has demonstrated that when health systems are overwhelmed, mortality from vaccine-preventable and other treatable conditions can also increase dramatically. During the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak, the increased number of deaths caused by measles, malaria, HIV/Aids, and tuberculosis attributable to health system failures exceeded deaths from Ebola.
According to WHO, countries also need to comply with the highest standard in precautions, especially in hygiene practices, and the provision of adequate supplies including personal protective equipment. This requires robust planning and coordinated actions between governments and health facilities and their managers.
Some examples of essential services include routine vaccination; reproductive health services including care during pregnancy and childbirth; care of young infants and older adults; management of mental health conditions as well as non-communicable diseases and infectious diseases like HIV, malaria and TB; critical inpatient therapies; management of emergency health conditions; auxiliary services like basic diagnostic imaging, laboratory services, and blood bank services, among others.
Data from previous outbreaks has demonstrated that when health systems are overwhelmed, mortality from vaccine-preventable and other treatable conditions can also increase dramatically. During the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak, the increased number of deaths caused by measles, malaria, HIV/Aids, and tuberculosis attributable to health system failures exceeded deaths from Ebola.
According to WHO, countries also need to comply with the highest standard in precautions, especially in hygiene practices, and the provision of adequate supplies including personal protective equipment. This requires robust planning and coordinated actions between governments and health facilities and their managers.
Some examples of essential services include routine vaccination; reproductive health services including care during pregnancy and childbirth; care of young infants and older adults; management of mental health conditions as well as non-communicable diseases and infectious diseases like HIV, malaria and TB; critical inpatient therapies; management of emergency health conditions; auxiliary services like basic diagnostic imaging, laboratory services, and blood bank services, among others.