Medical Frontiers Protection: Safety Watch and Procurement Tools in an Conflicting Areas Healthcare Provision 

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Ms. Seemab Mehmood, an MBBS student at Fatima Jinnah Medical University, Lahore,Pakistan. She is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

Since old ages, healthcare workers had a privilege to work on a frontline taking risks over their lives for safety of individuals suffering from human-induced armed conflicts, displacements and brutal wars. However, a challenge which remains significant during healthcare professionals’ journey, serving during war, social or democratic wars, is their defining role as only healthcare service providers beyond any biased ness towards any parties in conflict. Healthcare professionals should act as a neutral body working only for saving humans lives from brutal war injuries irrespective of any social, political or religious affiliations. But this relation should come as a bilateral agreement, where healthcare professionals should also be treated likewise by conflicting parties. Healthcare personnel, workforce and services should not be targeted by any means of armed forces abiding by UN Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 2286 calling for an end to unlawful attacks on health-care facilities and workers in armed conflicts throughout the world. [1]. 

Therefore, there is a need to create collective efforts to ensure healthcare personnel protection via effective safety watch strategies while also focusing on introducing advanced and easy-to-use procurements tools as an extended program for Healthcare Workforce Safety under direct supervision of International entities like United Nations and World Health Organisations.

Safety Watch and Procurement Tools:

The most likely we are able to provide safety of healthcare workforce and personnel if we have a practical approach towards an effective reporting means including but not limited to;  a strategical approach of devising safety watch protocols covering the means of communication, human resources, safe shelter and an emergency safe evacuation. It is almost equally important to take strict measures on safety watch as to increase the healthcare services delivery during emergency crisis. Therefore, it must be mandatory for all involved stakeholders to reinforce the already practised measures by introducing modern AI tools for the safety of Medical Frontiers Protection. A few strategic suggestions are:

a. Satellite Network Connection Availability to Healthcare Providers: A specially designed phone technology connected to satellites directly should be provided to healthcare personnel working during armed conflicted area. So that, this digital asset will let healthcare professionals to keep their ties with outside world by providing a network of unlimited availability. This can prove a safe and reliable means of empowering healthcare professionals while ensuring their safety. However, this service should be monitored closely for any use other than healthcare professionals communication. 

b. Armed Conflict Healthcare Personnel Safety Toolkit: Despite the special training and advanced disaster medicine knowledge, it is high time that healthcare professionals should pay heed towards designing safety toolkit by adopting multidisciplinary approach under WHO Technical Advisory Group that should address the needs of healthcare professionals serving in an emergency fields. 

These tools must be installed in emergency service delivery centres while a continuous training of healthcare professionals on how to effectively use the already in place measures is a necessary step for the ultimate success of ensuring safety of healthcare personnel for long term sustainability of healthcare system.

1. UN Security Council. Resolution 2286 (2016). Adopted by the Security Council at its 7685th meeting, on 3 May 2016. http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/2286(2016)

About the author

Ms. Seemab Mehmood is an MBBS student at Fatima Jinnah Medical University, Lahore,Pakistan. She has been serving as CUGH Trainee Advisory Committee Chair and International Finance Team Member at Incision Global. She has been a Co-author of 2 Anthology books.  Furthermore, she envisions a world full of enthusiasm with a never-ending race of optimistic innovations. And being inquisitive, she loves her visuals to write and get them written on an ever-growing human journey of exploration. A curious mind that always strives for change within an ever-changing world.