Module -3

Public Health Emergency Preparedness

PCB-D
March/2023

PHEM_ Basic training

 Outlines
 Introduction
 Purpose of Preparedness
 Elements of Preparedness
 Coordination & Collaboration
 Assessment
 Planning
 Capacity building

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 Objective
 After completing this module participants will
able to:-
 Define preparedness
Describe purpose of preparedness
Identify elements of preparedness
Apply coordination & collaboration
Assess the health status of in PHE preparedness
Plan EPR
Apply capacity building

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 Definition
 The range of deliberate, critical tasks and activities
necessary to
 Build,
 Sustain, and
 Improve the operational capability to prevent, protect
against, respond to, and recover from incidents”.
 Those tasks/activities - undertaken before the occurrence
of the emergency after getting the information mainly from
EWAR and surveillance finding.
 Also works on system establishment and maintenance.

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 Purpose of Preparedness
 The main objectives/purpose of health
emergency preparedness include:
 Preventing avoidable crisis and catastrophes
 Reducing morbidity and mortality effects
 Ensuring availability of required resources
 Minimizing disruption to health services
 Maintaining business continuity as far as possible
 Reducing disruption to society as much as possible
 Reducing deleterious effect of the emergency on
quality of life

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 Elements of Preparedness
 In the public health context, the preparedness
sub process is comprised of the following
broad activities.

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 Coordination and Collaboration
 The system of coordination & collaboration is important:-
 for effective preparedness and response activities,
 Coordination will be better managed if a committee or task force
of all the stakeholders and partners is established in advance.
 During emergency preparedness it is advisable to work within
established structures and systems such as task force, RRT,
health committee etc.
 Coordination activities can be done
 Horizontally (eg between two regions of the country or between
two countries)
 Vertically (eg between region and zone of the country on their
hierarchy)

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 Coordination and Collaboration
 Activities and steps required for effective
coordination and collaboration include:
 Identification of all sectors, collaborators and partners,
their areas of intervention
 Development of a list and keep a register of all relevant
institutions
 Development of Term of Reference (TOR),
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to guide the
framework;
 Monitoring and evaluation
 Formation of a Rapid Response Team (RRT)
 Revision of membership
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Assessment of PHE Preparedness (1/2)

 Base line Ass’t:

provides information on the situation to initiate a
surveillance system for that specific disease and
events
 Periodic Ass’t:
It is a screening tool used by PHEM Unit in
collaboration with stakeholders and partners at
each level to evaluate the health and nutrition
situation

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Assessment of PHE Preparedness (2/2)
 Vulnerability Ass’t:
It is continuing, dynamic process of assessing
hazards and risks that threaten the population and
health system and determining what can be done
about it.

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 Vulnerability Assessment
A vulnerability assessment provides:
 A means to inform decision-makers about the
needs of preparedness at different levels;
 A starting point to construct an overall plan that
corresponds to the dimensions of identified risks.
 A tool to initiate the public health emergency
preparedness planning;
 can also help to measure the levels of
preparedness or unpreparedness;

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 Vulnerability Assessment and Risk
Mapping (VRAM) (1/2)
 Vulnerability
 Hazard
 Risk Mapping
 Capacity
 Risk

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 Hazard
 Hazard:
 Any dangerous situation or phenomenon which has a
potential to cause damage, loss or injury to human,
property or environment
 Classified as:
 Depending on origin Depending on speed of
onset
 Geological Rapid
 Hydro-meteorological Natural Slow
 Biological
 Socio-economic
 Technological human induced

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 Vulnerability (1/3)
 Is the characteristics and circumstances of a
community, system, or asset that make it
susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard
 Done periodically to predict and be prepared to
mitigate the problems which come as a result of
them
 Describes two aspects of the subject:-
Susceptibility
Resilience

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 Vulnerability (2/3)

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 Vulnerability (3/3)

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 Capacity
 It is the combination of all the strengths,
attributes and resources available within a
community, society, organization or a system
that can be used to achieve agreed goals or
reduce disaster risks.

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 Risk
 Risk is defined as a product of the likelihood of
the occurrence of a given hazard (epidemic
disease, drought, flood, etc.) and the
vulnerability to the impact
 Risk mapping of exposure and vulnerability
including the physical, social, health, economic
and environmental dimensions; and the
evaluation of the effectiveness prevailing and
alternative coping capacities in respect to likely
risk scenarios
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 Risk (2/2)
 In general risk is:

Risk=Hazard(H)*Vulnerability(V)/Capacity(C)

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Preparing an epidemic preparedness and
response plan (1/4)
 An Emergency Preparedness and Response
Plan (EPRP) is “a document that describes
 How an organization will manage its preparedness and
 Responses to risks and emergencies of various types
A national/regional health Emergency
Preparedness & Response Plan (EPRP)
describes
 How the health sector structures and
 Organizes itself for the management of an emergency
response
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Preparing an epidemic preparedness and
response plan (2/4)
 An efficient preparedness system helps to
effectively anticipate, respond to, and start to
recover from, the impacts of likely, imminent or
current hazard events or conditions
 EPRP is one of the components of the Pre-
disaster (prevention, mitigation and
preparedness) phase and an essential
component of preparedness

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Preparing an epidemic preparedness and
response plan (3/4)
 The EPRP should have a
 multi-hazard approach to guide and define response for both
public health events involving infectious and non-infectious
hazards, and for the health consequences of any emergency
or disaster
 The EPRP should present
 The roles,
 Responsibilities,
 Systems and
 Mechanisms for emergency response within the health
sector but also towards other sectors and competent
authorities
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Preparing an epidemic preparedness and
response plan (4/4)
 Each level of PHEM emergency preparedness level
required for institutional readiness as well as the
projection to reach or maintain it;
 The mechanisms to detect and investigate an alert
and to activate an appropriate response in a timely
manner;
 The structures and mechanisms to effectively
coordinate and manage a response
 The response strategy and required resources for
efficient response to specific risks identified in the
country;
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 Capacity Building (1/8)
 The capacity building activity could focus on
Establishing and/or strengthening system
Work force development
Fulfilling human resource needs related to PHEM:
surveillance system, communication, laboratory
and logistics

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 Capacity Building (2/8)
System development
 The Health System Development (HSD) is a designed
structure that improves health care delivery in the
following ways.
 Identify efficient surveillance strategy and establish/strengthen the
inflow of gathered information from all sources in a timely fashion
 Develop/strengthen communication procedures, and systems that
support required communications with all levels
 Provide IT support to early warning sub process
 Coordinate procurement and placement of communication systems
based on a gap analysis of requirements versus existing capabilities

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 Capacity Building (3/8)
Work force development
 Recruiting and maintaining highly qualified health
workforce with appropriate
 technical training
 scientific skills and
 subject-matter expertise is the key elements of health
emergency and disaster preparedness.
 Planning and implementation of trainings based on need,
identified gaps and health sector strategic objectives (eg FETP,
PHEM guideline ,Case management, Surveillance)

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 Capacity Building (4/8)
 The following activities should be considered as part of
a comprehensive workforce capacity building strategy.
 Training needs assessment to inform capacity and skill
gaps
 Preparing updated list of trained staff at all levels including
health facilities.
 Identifying and addressing gaps in the existing training as
revision of curriculums of health emergency workforce
training programs
 Working with public health training institutions to support
the trainings.

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 Capacity Building (5/8)
 Surge Capacity:
 The ability to provide adequate healthcare during
health emergencies that may exceed the limits of
normal health system capacity.
 Surge staff is mobilized when the magnitude of the health
emergency event exceeds available capacity of existing
health workforce
 Decisions about surge requirements should be made by
public health authorities at national or local level according
to existing guideline

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 Capacity Building (6/8)
 Volunteers Management:
A volunteer is an individual, institution, agency and
others who render aid and service without pay or
remuneration.
Volunteer management generally follows the cycle
illustrated in the figure below

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 Capacity Building (7/8)
 Logistics
Focused on

• stockpiling drugs, vaccines (buffer stocks), PPE,

Emergency health kits,
• Medical supplies required for prevention and control of
epidemics
Logistics capacity building focuses on the following

categorized activities
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 Capacity Building (8/8)

• Emergency Supply Chain Preparedness

• Emergency Supply Chain Coordination
• Emergency Procurement Management

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 Group Exercise
 Practical Exercise
Exercise 1: on Coordination and Collaboration
Exercise 2: on Vulnerability assessment and risk
mapping and planning
Exercise 3: on Capacity Building
 Reference: on participant manual

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THANK YOU!!

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