14
Aug

Webinar 1: Mobilizing surge capacity of health care workers in response to COVID-19 pandemic

Episode 1: Mobilizing surge capacity for public health actions

, which include field epidemiologists, public health workforce for case identification, contact tracing, quarantine, risk communication and community engagement, leverage of private sectors, identify innovation strategies (if any), challenges and recommend effective solutions.

Health workers (HWs) are at the forefront of the COVID-19 response. They not only play a critical role in delivering COVID-19 related care but also in preventing the transmission of the virus and in delivering routine essential health services.

Most countries in Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions already face an overall shortage of health workers, along with skill-mix imbalances, geographical maldistribution and a short supply of clinical specialists.

Rapid increases in the workload due to COVID-19 related demand for services has further exacerbated the shortages. In addition, countries have had to plan and create the surge capacity for the health workforce to meet the growing COVID-19 public health needs such as case identification, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation, and risk communication among others.

The emerging health workforce situation poses a challenge for the COVID-19 response that needs to be addressed. Countries in the three regions have been implementing policy actions and initiatives to address the health workforce needs. This webinar presents an opportunity to share some good practices on health workforce policy, planning, management, and training.

*The Webinar is presented in association with PMAC 2021 the conference on COVID-19 Advancing Towards an Equitable and Healthy World