New Delhi: The government is setting up 100 teams that will respond to health emergencies, including pandemics, along the lines of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
Officials from the health ministry, AIIMS, National Centre for Disease Control, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and NDMA are devising a mechanism along with state governments to put it into action.
The new strategy will be presented next week to health minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
“We are going to create an emergency medical response team for states to deal with future pandemic and environmental disasters like cyclone, earthquake or for any disease outbreak,” said a government official aware of the matter.
“During covid-19, we had set up central teams to manage the pandemic. At present, whenever any crisis occurs, the government deploys a team and sends them to the site. But once these teams are in place with the right training and knowledge to tackle any emergency then only a dedicated team will be deployed,” the official added.
The emergency medical response team will be a group of healthcare professionals who will provide direct clinical care to populations affected by outbreaks and emergencies to support the local healthcare system.
“The plan is to set up 100 teams consisting of specialist doctors like burn surgical specialists, public health experts and logistic experts who would access PPE (personal protective equipment) kits etc., administrators, officials from NDRF, NDMA.
“We have been working on it for 20 days (about 3 weeks) and are likely to give the comprehensive plan to the minister by next week,” said the official.The training of the teams would start once the roadmap gets approved by the government.
“Internationally, these teams are apt, standardized and deliver immediate disaster response on the ground. This is what we want to create in India,” said the official.
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