Webinar Week 2: Donor and Funding Challenges for LMICs Hospital Readiness – EU-wide

The second webinar was held on Friday 27/03/2020 at 1:00 pm GMT.

Slides available for download at the button below along with link to recorded webinar 

Speakers Included: 

ANCHOR:
Prof Ruairi Brugha, MB, BCh, BAO, MD, FFPHMI, MSc, DCH, Dip Obs, Dip Humanities

Nelly Comon: Manager, Donor Relations, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria

Unarose Hogan: WHO Consultant, COVID-19 Hospital Readiness  

WEBINAR CONTENT • Ruairi gave us an overview of what we know so far about the pandemic

• Nelly spoke about how and why existing funding has been made available to governments for preparedness and response

• Unarose shared her perspective and information about how hospitals in Europe and in LMICs can best prepare for the increase in care needed

Full summary of points made is available in the video description on youtube

SUMMARY OF WEBINAR CONTENTS

Update from Ruairi Brugha, Professor Emeritus, a Former Head of the Department of Public Health & Epidemiology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland:

• Advised using the WHO situation dashboard and Department of Health websites to keep up to date on numbers globally: Epicentre of the virus has shifted from Italy to the United States. China is at risk of a second epidemic. Africa is showing very little reporting reflecting possible complacency, and inability to react and test at capacity.

• Vulnerable populations are being hardest hit. The Department of Justice and Department of Health need to ensure optimal communication and collaboration to address vulnerable populations.

• In this for the long haul until vaccines can be developed or measures decrease the virus to very low levels.

• Indirect effects of health systems being overwhelmed have potentially worse effects than the primary epidemic itself. Countries need to keep current programmess going e.g. ARV distribution.

• You need to care for yourself before you care for others.

Panellists:

Nelly Comon, Manager, Donor Relations Department at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

• Operational guidelines have been developed in countries authorising the reprogramming of funds to fight COVID-19 in these countries. This includes Ordering PPE, testing and information campaigns. Collaboration is crucial in addressing problems affecting multiple stakeholders to better support countries, such as addressing possible supply chain issues.

• 24 countries have asked to reprogramme their funding, and so far, 20 million dollars has been set aside to assist.

• It is important for donors and partners to prioritise governance in funding to ensure that funds are provided without this being taken advantage of, and without reducing necessary funding for other important programmes.

• Countries need to continue with current measures to reduce the virus and collaborators need to work together to strengthen health systems towards the betterment of communities.

• Operational guidelines for repurposing grants are available on the Global fund website.

• WHO has revised formally existing checklists H1N1 hospital readiness checklists and are going to countries to review the key components including administrative readiness (surge capacity, communicative resources, human resources), clinical readiness (essential services, IPC, case management, surveillance) and support service readiness (logistics and management of supplies and pharmaceuticals, labs, essential support services).

• Barriers to IPC include constrained PPE, inadequate isolation facilities and human behaviour. A systemic lack of reprioritisation of IPC in hospitalisation in low and middle-income countries is worrying, such as reduced engagement with clinical IPC in hospital settings and an absence of regulation around infection control training.

• IPC is a role for EVERYONE in hospital settings and all hospital personnel need to be included in training.