21
Aug

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

Episode 2:  Mobilizing surge capacity for diagnostic and clinical management

The rapid increase in the numbers of cases and their geographical spread has created enormous demand and stress on health systems and health workers worldwide.  Health workers are at the forefront of the response to COVID-19, both as service providers and as high-risk groups for contracting the disease. The rapidly increasing workload has resulted in shortages in the health workforce in general, and in certain specialties in particular, such as intensive care unit physicians and nurses, infectious diseases specialists, pulmonologists, respiratory therapists, laboratory professionals and more in addition to field epidemiologists and public health specialists who are involved in the public health response.  The acute onset of the epidemic has meant little time for adequate training and has led to limited capacities  of  health workforce involved in the diagnosis and management of identified COVID-19 cases besides the shortages in equipment (e.g., ventilators) and supplies (e.g., PPEs, medicines) which are required to allow health staff to provide the adequate care to patients

Most countries have already been facing an overall shortage of health workers, along with skill-mix imbalances, geographical maldistribution and a shortage of specialized health workers.  The session will address

• Health workforce shortages faced during the COVID -19 response
• How surge capacities were mobilized, approaches and implications of mobilizing surge capacities
• Capacity building implications for existing and additionally mobilized health workers
• Financial implications of addressing health workforce shortage
• Long term implications in terms of required capacities and competencies of future health workers.

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