“It is good news that Health systems in most countries are beginning to restore essential health services for the millions of people who have missed them during the pandemic,” said Dr Rudi Eggers, director of general health services at the World Health Organization (WHO).WHO).
“However, we need to ensure that all countries continue to close this gap to restore health services and apply lessons learned to build a more resilient and ready health system for the future”.
Recovery, recovery investment
By early 2023, the reporting countries had experienced reduce interruptions in the delivery of routine medical services, but emphasizing need investment to recover And stronger resilience for the future, the health agency of the United Nations speak in the newly published interim report”Fourth round of the global pacing survey on continuity of essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic: November 2022–January 2023“.
Of the 139 countries that responded to the survey, WHO said continued disruptions persisted in nearly a quarter of services. In the 84 countries where trends could be analyzed, the rate of service disruptions decreased on average from 56% in July-September 2020 to 23% in November 2022-January 2023.
The respondents also expressed WHO support needs to address remaining challenges inside COVID-19 context and more. This most often involves strengthening the health workforce, building capacity to oversee health services, and designing primary health care.
Towards pre-pandemic standards
By the end of 2022, most countries have reported sign of partial service recovery. This includes sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and youth health services; nutrition; vaccination; and infectious diseases (including malaria, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases).
In the new survey, fewer countries said they intentionally narrowed access across all service delivery platforms and essential public health functions between 2020 and 2021. show a Important step to return to pre-pandemic levels of service delivery and broader systemic functionality, WHO said.
In addition, the number of countries reporting disruptions to their national supply chain systems fell from almost half (29 out of 59 responding countries) to about a quarter (18 out of 59). 66 countries responded) in the last year.
A health worker prepares to administer a COVID-19 vaccine in a village in Kasungu, Malawi.
Handling backlogs, service interruptions
Although there are signs of recovery, Service interruption continues Across countries in all regions and income levels, as well as across most service providers and monitoring service areas, said WHO.
Supply and demand factors is driving this trendcause persistent disruptions, ranging from low levels of health care seeking in the community, to limited human and related resources such as open clinics or available drug and product stockpiles .
Countries are also dealing increasing service backlog – often in screening, diagnosis and treatment services for noncommunicable diseases – this can lead to negative consequences when people do not have access to timely care.
Progress in integrating COVID-19 services
WHO says it is important to restore the delivery of essential health services. Discontinuity to services such as health promotion, disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care. may have adverse health effects even greater than the pandemic itselfespecially among vulnerable populations, the health agency added.
In another important step towards system recovery and transformation, WHO reported that most countries have made progress in integrating COVID-19 services into their health service delivery. ordinary economy. About 80 to 90% of countries have fully integrated a COVID-19 vaccinediagnostic and case management services as well as services for post-COVID-19 conditions, such as ‘prolonged COVID’, to provide general services.
Applying lessons learned
However, 80% of the 83 responding countries reported at least one bottleneck in expanding access to essential COVID-19 tools, from diagnosis and treatment to equipment. personal protection. Other common barriers are health workforce issues and lack of funding.
At the same time, most countries have begun to apply the lessons learned during the pandemic, including the institutionalization of some innovative service interruption mitigation strategy in the provision of general services.
Including telemedicine deployment approach, promotion home care or self-care interventions, methods to enhance the availability, capacity and support mechanisms of health workers, innovation in the procurement and supply of drugs and suppliesMore frequent community communication and partnerships with private sector providers.
Likewise, three-quarters of countries reported additional funding allocation towards system recovery, resilience, and longer-term preparedness.
Monitor progress
In the fourth round of the WHO global pulse survey, 222 countries, territories and regions were invited to respond to a standardized web-based survey from November 2022 to January 2023. .
The survey follows previous WHO editions in 2020 and 2021: Round 1 (May-September 2020); Round 2 (January-March 2021); And Round 3 (November-December 2021) shows how the pandemic is affecting the continuity of essential health services and how countries are acting.
Learn more about the UN response to the COVID-19 pandemic This.
