The National Department of Health (NDoH) has been focusing on getting the basics right by improving and implementing systems to address future health emergencies.
As seen in the polio response in 2018 and the recent COVID-19 pandemic response from 2020, both have presented challenges and opportunities for the country to continue to improve on its preparedness in health emergency crisis.
Since May 2021, the NDOH, in partnership with Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETPNG), and with funding and technical support from World Health Organazation (WHO) and its partners, University of Newcastle Field Epidemiology in Action Project, the Australian Government through the PNGAusPartnership, GOARN, and the National Control Center (NCC) has been running Rapid Response Team (RRT) trainings with Provincial Health Authorities (PHA) around the country to help them be better prepared to respond to future health crisis.
RRT’s are critical for early and timely outbreak or crisis investigation and respond in public health emergencies and is made up of technical, multi-disciplinary team of experts who a readily available for a quick mobilization and deployment.
There have been 15 PHA and one district RRT Introduction and Composition training conducted.
There are eight more PHA’s to undergo this introduction and composition training.
After this, all provincial RRT’s will go through an ‘Action Training Review’ workshop, in which, their response plans are reviewed before they are fully prepared for emergency response.
There will be ongoing training as part of their capacity development.
The first ever national and provincial RRT trainings for PNG were delivered by WHO in 2019, shortly after the Polio Outbreak.