Making the Health System Resilient: Need of the hour in the backdrop of COVID-19

Abstract

Health systems resilience refers to the capacity of a healthcare system to respond to and recover from shocks, disruptions, and challenges while maintaining its core functions and providing essential health services.  Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has warranted an urgent need to make a resilient health system to be able to better be prepared for future public health threats. It involves the ability to anticipate, absorb, adapt, and transform in the face of various threats, such as natural disasters, disease outbreaks, conflicts, economic crises, or technological failures.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on essential health services worldwide. While efforts were primarily focused on containing and managing the spread of the virus, many routine and critical health services were disrupted or experienced significant strain. Efforts have been made to adapt and restore essential health services during the pandemic. These include implementing telemedicine and digital health solutions, ensuring infection prevention and control measures in healthcare facilities, prioritizing high-risk populations, and strengthening healthcare systems' capacity to manage both COVID-19 and routine health needs.

The health systems can enhance their resilience and better withstand and recover from shocks and challenges, ensuring the continued provision of quality healthcare services to populations in need by better preparedness, optimizing response capacity, governance & leadership, health workforce, health information management systems, infrastructure and logistics financing mechanism, community engagement and international, national and sub-nation level cooperation wherever applicable for making the health system absorptive. Adaptive and transformative.