The past few years of the COVID-19 pandemic have been enormously difficult for communities in Cambodia, and for many health workers in particular, who have worked tirelessly to support and care for all those affected by the virus. While this has been a testing time, the Royal Government of Cambodia is viewing the pandemic and its response as an opportunity to strengthen the country’s health system for the future.
The World Health Organization (WHO) local preparedness team in Cambodia has been recognised by the WHO Western Pacific Region for its excellent teamwork.
As Cambodia plans for the sustained management of COVID-19 and beyond, a key aspect will continue to be local preparedness. Being prepared has been key since the beginning of pandemic, and it remains important and relevant now, in this phase of sustained management of COVID-19. This includes developing and strengthening an emergency health response system, an incident management system that is activated when needed, whether for a disease outbreak or related to a natural hazard such as a flood.
“The beauty of local preparedness is that we aim to strengthen a generic local public health system, so no matter what emergency you face, you can modify and use the same system”, says Dr Vannda Kab, the lead on local preparedness for the WHO in Cambodia. “If you set up a strong incident management system that connects all key functions, you can use and adapt it for any emergency: flood response, or outbreak of disease in the village or the province. That’s the beauty of it. This is our vision.”
WHO staff and provincial health department staff receiving training on field epidemiology capacity training check data as entered by Memong Health Centre staff.
© WHO/Tytaart
WHO is working closely with the Royal Government of Cambodia to ensure a local system that is resilient and capable of being scaled up if needed. When an emergency happens at the village or provincial level, a strong local preparedness and coordination system ensures support can be mobilised when needed as the response is connected with the national system.
COVID-19 has helped to fast-track the development of a preparedness. “We see amazing progress,” says Dr Kab. “We have provinces now talking about incident management systems, which they had never heard of prior to COVID-19. They’re talking about monitoring disease outbreaks using multisource surveillance, and avoiding the red line when the health system becomes overwhelmed. This is very impressive, but local preparedness has to be a long-term goal. The next pandemic or crisis is coming.”
For the future, WHO and the Royal Government of Cambodia are using the local preparedness approach to further strengthen the health system as part of a broad strategy that also encompasses primary health care and noncommunicable diseases or NCDs. Primary health care is the first port of call for those affected by an emergency, so a strong, universal and accessible system is crucial. Local preparedness requires clear planning at all levels, from national down to the health facility level. Planning may include how to repurpose staff, or how to deal with quickly boosting staff numbers when needed.
“This is all interconnected,” says Dr Kab, “which is why we call it system readiness – it’s all linked.”
WHO staff checks equipment for mobile malaria workers in Pu Nheav Village, Memong Commune, Keo Seima District, Mondul Kiri Province as they fill out data after taking blood sample as trial.
© WHO/Tytaart
A focus on the future and award-winning health service
Highlighting the importance of this work, the WHO Cambodia local preparedness team recently won an award for their efforts. The WHO Western Pacific Region recognized their respectful teamwork, as an example to emulate across the region.
“We’re all human,” says Dr Kab, “and we’ve all been exhausted by the pandemic. Our team has really come together, to support each other, help each other to take breaks and combine our strengths. It really has been a case of the whole is stronger than the sum of its parts.”
“I am enormously proud of the entire local preparedness team,” says WHO Representative to Cambodia Dr Li Ailan. “They have worked hard not only during the toughest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, but beyond to ensure that the systems developed can be built on and strengthened for the future.”