From the 24 – 27 October, technical staff from the WHO Emergency Medical Team (EMT) Initiative came together with 40 health and emergency leaders from the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Fiji National Disaster Management Office, first responders from other government departments and agencies came together to actively participate in an Emergency Medical Team Country Preparedness Workshop, held in Pacific Harbour, Fiji.
The WHO EMT Initiative assists organizations and member states to build capacity and strengthen health systems by coordinating the deployment of quality assured medical teams in emergencies. The EMT Initiative in particular seeks to strengthen the national capacity of countries to develop their own EMT teams so that they can be the first responders in an emergency.
Aimed at strengthening the national capacity and coordination of the Fiji Emergency Medical Team (FEMAT), the training brought together participants to collectively coordinate for the deployment of national clinical and public health teams during outbreaks and disasters. The workshop also supported the Fiji ministries and partners to identify minimum standards, best practice, logistics and operational field coordination SOPs at every stage of the emergency response cycle.
The training marked another big step towards the FEMAT becoming formally classified as a WHO quality assured emergency medical team. ‘Over the past year, WHO has been working with FEMAT in assisting them to become a WHO internationally quality assured emergency medical team. We hope FEMAT will be fully verified by early 2018, which will be a great achievement for Fiji as it will become the first Pacific island country to have a WHO classified emergency medical team’ expressed Dr Ian Norton, WHO EMT Initiative Manager.
Whilst the WHO EMT Initiative team were in Fiji, an emergency preparedness and response planning workshop was also held with WHO Division of Pacific Technical Support. Through this workshop the Division of Pacific Technical Support reviewed its current capacity and established a work plan to strengthen the agency’s internal readiness for business continuity during a localised emergency and for providing emergency response support to Pacific countries and territories.