Kathmandu, September 6

The World Health Organisation today called on countries in its South-East Asia Region to strengthen emergency medical teams to be better prepared to respond to health emergencies.

“Strengthening national and regional-level emergency medical teams is a high-impact investment in reducing deaths, diseases and disabilities due to disasters, outbreaks and other emergencies. Emergency medical teams contribute to life-saving critical interventions,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director WHO South-East Asia Region, at the ongoing Regional Committee meeting in New Delhi, being attended by health ministers and senior officials of 11 member countries, including Nepal.

According to a press release issued by the New Delhi-based WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, experience from health emergencies in the region have shown that following a sudden disaster, a large number of emergency medical teams or emergency response teams often arrive in the affected country to provide emergency care to affected people. The EMTs are national, international, government, non-governmental, civilian and military. These teams have varied capacities and their deployment is often not based on assessed needs.

“To be more effective, EMTs need to be standardised, strengthened and well-coordinated,” the release quoted the WHO regional director. WHO is helping mentor EMTs to improve their capacities in line with international standards. The WHO EMT Initiative aims at supporting countries, non-governmental organisations, international organisations, by identifying minimum standards, best practices, logistics and standard operating procedures for operating field coordination, for saving lives, preserving health and protecting dignity.

“In an emergency, the outcome of the response depends on how quickly the right expertise reaches the right place at the right time to meet the needs of the affected people,” said Dr Singh. WHO urged member countries to develop and implement a national plan for strengthening systems for EMTs in collaboration with all key partners; and  establish and strengthen national mechanisms which supports effective and high-performing national EMTs in line with the WHO Classification and Standards.

The South-East Asia Region is vulnerable to various disasters and emergencies such as earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, landslides and volcanic eruptions. As per 2016 World Disaster Report, over the past decade the region disproportionately accounted for 26.8 per cent of the deaths in emergencies. Prone to natural disaster, the region has been focusing on scaling up emergency risk management as a flagship priority. Better preparedness has helped saved lives during major disasters such as Nepal earthquake, the release stated.