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Health services
In case of a major crisis situation whatever the cause, place or complexity levels are, first of all emergency health services and a middle and long term global health support are needed for the population (patients’ medical support, prevention and management of epidemic risks, water and food resources management, putting in order of the local health services...).
In the frame of Emergesat, several “health” services are proposed to answer the needs related to a major crisis.
Those services intervening during the different organizational and temporal stages of the major crisis’s management are the following:
a primary emergency support through a victims’ management system
a medical support service to the population through teleconsultation
a sanitary support service to the population through in situ data collection
These services are designed to improve the procedures used in crisis management; to favour the collection, treatment, broadcasting and storage of this information. They are defined and used according to the international standards in effect, respecting local traditions and the prerogatives of the demanding authorities.
First emergency support
This first emergency support is a medical support service consisting of a victim’ management system in accordance with the catastrophe medecine’s principles.
It intervenes during the first step of a catastrophe (between 0 and 24/72 hours). The priority is to rescue first the victims, to take charge of them and to organize their ressettlement in facilities capable of providing them with the necessary care. Therefore one main function is to identify the victims as soon as possible in order to facilitate the management of the assistance operations and the initial medical assistance..
Medical support usually follows 3 steps:
the first step is to identify the victims of the disaster. As soon as they are discovered by the “premier secours”, they are given a personal identifying code (like a bar code for example) allowing to be followed up more efficiently. An identifying system facilitates collaboration between the different medical teams from various origins, the local authorities and the population.
Then comes the triage of the victims on the basis of a first medical check-up. It allows, on one hand, to classify the victims and, on the other hand, to establish the necessary resource needs regarding medical personnel and material.
The last step consists of determining the mode of transport as well as the hospital’s service required for the victim.
Such first emergency medical assistance allows good initial management of a larger number of victims with immediate available resources. In this context, Emergesat, through the support brought to the first aid
teams, allows the preparation of the transition stage, to inform together the actors, the decision-makers and the population.
Medical support to populations
The use of Telemedicine improves the quality of healthcare by the means of teleconsulting and the performing of epidemiological surveillance.
In case of a major disaster, the local medical services and facilities are often, partly or totally, no longer operational. In that case, medico-technical resources deployed on the field have to take over. They become the main focus point of a care system for a stricken population. At this level, the teams initially deployed to manage first aid do not have the appropriate skills in the requested field service. Moreover they cannot have an accurate knowledge of all the specific and chronic pathologies that may occur in the particular context of a developing crisis (foreign country, specific health organisation and pathologies, populaton sociology...).
Therefore, the use of telemedicine seems appropriate. Indeed telemedicine favours:
a more efficient management of the victim through improved collectionmedical information
quicker decision taking
limited patients’ transportation
immediate access to knowledge centres and specialists’ expertise
support for the restoration of the local health services through specialised support from a distance.
By the use of portable telemedicine stations, it will be possible to:
perform teleconsulting with regional and national or international experts well informed about the context,
favour data collection allowing monitoring and epidemiological alerts.
Sanitary support service to populations
This sanitary support service fulfills a mission of humanitarian aid providing tools for epidemic prevention as well as efficient management of the population’s basic needs (food, water, hygiene, housing..).It can consist of several units aimed at data collection, making an inventory of the needs, and estimating the risks according to the level of the humanitarian crisis.
Epidemiology unit
To allow the collection of epidemiological data on various pathologies, to make their inventory and to estimate the consumable and non-consumable resource requirements.
Nutrition unit
To allow to estimate/the estimation of food products for the population and to establish nutrition programs such as food stocks management.
Water and hygiene unit
To make the inventory of water needs and available water resources, as well as to assess the mode
of water treatmen, water distribution management, and waste treatment.
Populations management unit
To support the population
census, particularly the displaced populations and to estimate their needs regarding housing, goods and materials (clothes, bedding, cooking means...), this unit is compatible with the identification system.
These various units bring concrete help which is essential for populations. It’s an immediate response to the devastating consequences of a disaster whilst waiting for reconstruction and normal functioning of the previously available infrastructures. This sanitary support service established only a few days after the crisis situation, can last for weeks, months or even years according to the context. These units also facilitate the transition phase and the renovation of the local infrastructures.
