Regional European Emergency Medical Team Capabilities Hub: concept note and strategy

Overview

Regional European Emergency Medical Team Capabilities Hub (‎REECH)‎ will be established in the WHO European Centre for Preparedness for Humanitarian and Health Emergencies (‎PHHE)‎ in Istanbul, Türkiye to assist countries in the WHO European Region to strengthen their capacities for a health emergency response. REECH’s mission is to strengthen the capacity of the regional EMT network, national health systems and partners, to protect communities and improve patient health outcomes during health emergency response.To provide REECH with strategic direction to meet this goal and other health emergency workforce, a Regional EMT Knowledge and Capacity-strengthening Strategy (‎KCSS)‎ was developed with the following strategic objectives: advancing EMT evidence-informed research; strengthening EMT knowledge transfer; and cultivating an enabling environment for EMT methodology. The KCSS will guide the EMT capacity-strengthening process led by REECH across five core areas of work: strengthening regional EMT governance; quality assurance and mentorship for national EMTs; advance EMT deployment and coordination in emergencies; improve the quality of EMT preparedness and response activities; and digitalization of the REECH and EMT work.As a regional platform for strengthening EMT capacity, REECH will be integrated into the EMT ecosystem within the EMT community, national health systems and partners as a target audience.