Nobody can deny that the outbreak of COVID 19 was the fiercest challenge to global public hygiene and the healthcare system across the world, especially in the MENA region, those systems that remain untested for decades suddenly faced. Tychonic viral spread putting them in a really tough assessment.

Ahmed El Abd

Let me first elaborate more on what I mean by health care resilience.

Healthcare systems resilience is the power of health systems not only to plan for crises, such as pandemics, economic crises, or the effects of shocking climate changes, but also to mitigate the negative consequences of such disruptions, recover as quickly as possible, performing and more prepared & ready for emergencies stand strong, and adapt by learning lessons from the experience to become even better.

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates all these features. Improved resilience can result in increasing the capacity of health systems and societies to respond more rapidly and more effectively to new challenges. 

Ensuring a resilient health system is a key policy challenge for the years ahead, which require sound data and analysis, evidence-based investment decisions, and careful redesign of health systems.

Moreover, The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the priorities of the health system, which is finding itself not only overwhelmed but also with the restricted capacity to provide services

it has been hitherto extended to communities. Logistics and supplies are disrupted especially of material and equipment that were imported to date (API of essential drugs, personal protective equipment) adversely affecting the services.

Hospitals and health facilities overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients are making it difficult for other patients with acute or chronic ailments to access standard care. The national authorities have to plan for challenges related to the health of its population concurrent

 address the needs of children, women, the elderly with non-communicable diseases, and with combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Critical areas which may be given priority should others with special needs. The vulnerable should not be allowed to become more vulnerable. Children, women, and the elderly are the most vulnerable groups even in peacetime. 

In spite of the ambiguity surrounding this outbreak, survival, and mutation of this virus till now we are only certain about surveillance, disease prevention, and preparedness. Moreover, the awareness campaigns made by healthcare systems all over the world to take quick and targeted actions and allow people to make the best decisions to protect themselves from contagion have never been more apparent.

But the situation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) was really different. The economic development model in most of the Arab countries was dependent on public expenditure and public employment while most of the region’s economic transformations were moving slowly & characterized by fiscal myopia.

World Bank’s April 2021 MENA Economic Update cited clearly that public

than investments in core healthcare public goods, such as building resilient public spending priorities in MENA have continued to favor public employment rather healthcare systems. Consequently, and due to the pandemic, public healthcare systems in MENA tended to be underfunded, particularly in middle-income countries. 

Make it crystal clear that public health care precautions like surveillance and absorptive capacity was not adequate when COVID-19 hit. So, in order to avoid this in near future, some actions should be taken in order to make the healthcare systems more resilient: 

1-Shift the spending from infrastructure towards building more efficient 

2-public health systems 

3-Build confidence in public health services through community health 

4-Recruit, train & Prioritize healthcare workers 

5-Establish effective surveillance and response systems 

6-Include COVID-19 Vaccines in routine immunization packages 

7-Strengthen logistics & Supply of vaccines and other hygiene products 

 The road to the future

In a nutshell, Plans should be developed for a period of at least five years and subsequently revised in the light of technological advances and health techniques, and gains in knowledge.

Pandemic preparedness and response the plan should have top policymakers across the MENA Region as coordinators.

Agreement of top political leadership and assurance of sustained funding is essential, it is imperative to have a multi-sectoral multidisciplinary MENA regional pandemic preparedness and response plan in place. It must be kept in mind that while the focus of this preparation is to minimize the impact of the pandemic, the preparedness helps the health system even during the inter-pandemic period by providing improved services to communities to other diseases as well. 

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