WHO: Emergency medical service systems are important against health crises

Emergency medical service systems are critical to combating public health crises, WHO representative in Azerbaijan Hande Harmanci said at the symposium on 'The Improvement of the emergency medical service system in Azerbaijan,' Report informs.

According to her, it is estimated that nearly half of deaths and a third of disabilities in low- and middle-income countries could be eliminated with effective emergency care: "Emergency systems are an essential part of healthcare and serve as the first point of contact with healthcare for many people worldwide. The dramatic increase in demand for emergency medical services during the COVID-19 pandemic has shown again that emergency medical service systems are critical to combating public health crises. WHO intends to support the improvement of the emergency aid system and services, training, and standards in this field through the 'Pandemic Response Measures in Azerbaijan' project. For this purpose, on December 12, we started the 'Azerbaijan emergency system improvement week events'. The purpose of the week is to discuss Azerbaijan's vision of the future in the field of emergency systems, conduct training in this field, as well as inform the public about the importance of learning cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills in order to save people's lives."

"During the past four days, more than 70 health and non-health workers attended our training at New Clinic, Clinical Medical Center, and Sumgayit Training, Simulation, and Evaluation Center. We believe that this week, including today's symposium and tomorrow's working group meetings, will be the first step towards achieving the project's goals and will encourage collaboration among emergency medical professionals, health authorities, decision-makers, and the public in this field," Harmanci added.