As the COVID-19 pandemic unravelled, hospitals had to deal with the often overwhelming need to treat patients exposed to the virus. To minimize exposure and maximize health workforce capacity, many hospitals postponed elective procedures and non-essential services.
Read more “How have countries restarted more routine hospital activities during the COVID-19 pandemic?”
The COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) (e.g. gloves, medical masks, goggles, etc.), and large disruptions in the global marketplace made it difficult for virtually all countries to obtain PPE for their own needs in the first months of the pandemic.
Read more “Who has regulatory responsibility for stocking PPE in ambulatory settings, and how does it work in practice?”
Providing appropriate emotional, financial and practical support to protect health workers’ mental health and wellbeing and enable them to do their job are crucial to delivering an effective COVID-19 response.
Read more “How are countries supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their health workforce?”
Policy-makers are currently facing the challenge of striking the right balance between two competing goals: ensuring adequate capacities to treat those affected by COVID-19 and providing services that are necessary to maintain the health of the population.
Read more “How are countries reorganizing non-COVID-19 health care service delivery?”
Digital health tools are playing a central role in responding to COVID-19; some are established tools, some are existing tools being used in new ways, and increasingly there is attention to developing specific new digital health tools to respond to the pandemic.
Read more “How are countries using digital health tools in responding to COVID-19?”
Health care providers need flexibility to be able to respond quickly to meet increased demand in the outbreak, to offer new methods of service delivery and to maintain essential health services for non-COVID-19 conditions. The way in which providers are paid can be an obstacle to these objectives.
Read more “What are countries doing to give providers flexibility to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak?”
Households increasingly face financial strain as the COVID-19 outbreak becomes an economic crisis in many countries. If people face concerns about health care affordability, they may delay seeking treatment or be prevented from obtaining the services they need, making the outbreak harder to control.
Read more “How are countries removing financial barriers to accessing health services in the context of COVID-19?”
Within and across European countries, there is great divergence in hospital bed and intensive care unit (ICU) capacity. To alleviate pressure on intensive-care capacity, national and regional governments and hospitals have started to help each other by transferring critically ill patients from the worst-hit regions.
Read more “How do the worst-hit regions manage COVID-19 patients when they have no spare capacity left?”
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed immense pressure on the health workforce across Europe and worldwide, which has been exacerbated by workforce depletion as health professionals themselves are at high risk of being infected by COVID-19.
Read more “What strategies are countries using to expand health workforce surge capacity to treat COVID-19 patients?”
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to many countries facing shortages of sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE). The combination of increased demand for PPE and large disruptions in the global marketplace has made it difficult for virtually all countries to obtain PPE for their own needs.
Read more “What strategies are countries using to find new Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)?”