Urgent Healthcare Crisis: Prioritizing Primary and Secondary Care for the Vulnerable Population

The current humanitarian health crisis has left many people in urgent need of trauma and emergency healthcare services. Hospitals and ambulance services are struggling to provide lifesaving care due to a critical shortage of drugs, medical supplies, laboratory equipment, and medical kits. In addition, many facilities lack sufficient electricity or fuel supplies to continue operating effectively.

To address these issues, priority response activities must focus on providing essential primary and secondary healthcare services to the general population, especially vulnerable groups such as women, children, chronic illness patients, and survivors of gender-based violence. This includes establishing additional bed capacity and human resources to support the management of cases and disease surveillance to prevent outbreaks due to poor water and sanitation conditions in overcrowded shelters.

Mental health and psychosocial support are also crucial for the highly traumatized population. Providing early access to postoperative care and rehabilitation services is essential for those who have been injured. Establishing Emergency Medical Teams at key hospitals and setting up field hospitals are key response activities that will help ensure that those in need receive the care they need quickly.

To ensure continued service provision, it is essential to maintain fuel supply to hospitals, primary healthcare centers, and ambulance services. Additionally, supporting the capacity of existing primary and secondary healthcare services is a high priority. This includes treatment of illnesses, management of non-communicable diseases, nutrition interventions, sexual and reproductive health services, maternal and child health services, and care for GBV survivors.

Re-establishing referral pathways and scaling up disease surveillance and response capacity for communicable diseases are also crucial to prevent outbreaks. By addressing these needs head-on through priority response activities like these, we can help ensure that everyone has access to the care they need during this time of crisis.