Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday said that India can have its own disaster response model which other countries can emulate.
He said India’s model can learn from best global practices and go beyond standard operating procedures (SOPs) to become flexible and agile to deal with emergencies on the ground.
Addressing the advisory, he said, “While it is important to learn from global best practices and follow SOPs, let us learn from national examples of emergency and disaster response over the last few decades and enrich our models with learnings and insights.” Workshop on ‘National Emergency Medical Team, India’
“Multi-sectoral and multi-level learning needs to be included in the training and capacity building modules of the national framework of emergency response and management,” Mandaviya said.
Objective of the consultative workshop on ‘National Emergency Medical Team, India’
The two-day workshop aims to bring together all the stakeholders of the NEMT initiative to deliberate on the policy, strategy, roles and responsibilities of the initiative and prepare a roadmap for integrating the country’s needs for disaster preparedness in line with health Is. needed during such situations, it said in a statement.
Prevention, preparedness and responses to health emergencies is one of the priority areas under the G20 health track agenda and this is the first meeting after the G20 Health Working Group meeting in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala which took place on 18-20.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan stresses on the importance of collaboration between NDMA, NDRF, state agencies, emergency service providers, trauma centers etc and the need for synergistic efforts among them to ensure prompt, rapid and effective response .
NEMT initiative aims to reform the traditional responsive mode
The National Emergency Medical Team (NEMT) initiative aims to reform the traditional responsive way of deploying healthcare manpower in response to disasters and public health emergencies.
A health ministry statement said that EMT is defined as a group of health professionals who provide direct clinical care to populations affected by outbreaks and emergencies.
During an emergency/disaster, the core capabilities required to prepare for and mitigate the impact of any public health emergency remain largely the same.
For the deployed teams to be effective, they need to be formally trained and equipped not only in terms of clinical skills but also in terms of on-field coordination with other stakeholders, the statement said.