In the context of the pursuit of an effective, flexible and scalable public health policy ‘preparedness and readiness’, the Flemish government, at the initiative of Minister Crevits, is “building an integrated plan” around various building blocks that, according to that government, are “crucial for an effective approach and management of a (new) health and/or care crisis”.
According to the government, an important building block in this plan is “the employable workforce”. This building block is crucial because it will provide the preparedness and the ability to rapidly scale up workforce capacity to mitigate the impact of a growing health or healthcare crisis, epidemic or pandemic on the population when necessary.
The Flemish Government therefore approved the establishment of a Flemish reserve preparedness unit (REP), consisting of a permanent fixed part (10 FTE) and an on-call variable part (consisting of 300 reservists).
With the REP, the government provides the opportunity to quickly and flexibly deploy the necessary expert profiles for a broad spectrum of assignments during an emerging health or care crisis.
In addition, the Flemish Government also approved the realization of a training offer (both basic training for recruitment, but also permanent further training) for the benefit of the on-call variable part of the REP.
The Flemish government also looked to the US for this. The CDC recommends having a reserve capacity of personnel available for public health tasks, including informing and supporting health crises.
The CDC has established an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) designed to quickly respond to public health emergencies such as epidemics or pandemics
With the reserve preparedness unit (REP), the government provides the opportunity to quickly and flexibly deploy the necessary expert profiles for a broad spectrum of assignments.
The government: “During an emerging health crisis, we are thinking of carrying out source and contact research, early pre-exposure (e.g. measles) or post-exposure vaccination of vulnerable people, providing information about and distribution of medical countermeasures to prevent the spread and to reduce the burden of disease and possibly to coordinate and/or offer continuity of care in emergency situations.”
However, dealing with a major epidemic or pandemic requires much more scaling up of personnel. With the reserve preparedness unit (REP), they provide the opportunity to deploy the necessary people quickly and flexibly.
This REP consists for a relevant part of a group of ((para)medical) profiles that meet these conditions.
According to the government, the reserve preparedness unit can therefore “be used to quickly contain small outbreaks, or form a time bridge for scaling up in the event of a new major pandemic.”
Photo: Paul Van Welden – wikiPortrait.nl
2023-11-16 10:46:18
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