EHS-COVID (525) HIFA outputs are now available on the WHO website

28 March, 2022

Dear all,

I want to thank all of you, contributors and readers, for your inputs over the past year as we have supported a series of discussions on 'Maintaining essential health services during COVID-19' in collaboration with WHO. This has truly been a great example of how our collective experience and expertise can contribute to global health, and how we can work with WHO to help achieve our common goals.

The outputs of our latest discussion on Maintaining essential health services during COVID-19 and beyond are now published on the WHO website:

https://hlh.who.int/learninglabs/hifa

Here are the key learning points from our most recent discussions on HIFA:

- COVID-19 has caused major disruptions despite relatively low caseload in some countries.

- High workload and fear of infection among health workers have adversely affected their mental health.

- Lack of public trust and exaggerated fear of infection have led to reduced demand for services.

- Digital health has helped but has excluded those who are already disadvantaged.

- Meeting the basic needs of health workers is fundamental to strengthen health services.

BACKGROUND

HIFA is a global human-rights-based movement working in collaboration with the World Health Organization to reduce avoidable death and suffering by improving the availability of reliable healthcare information and protecting people from harmful misinformation.

HIFA has 20,000 professional members from 180 countries representing frontline health professionals, patients, general public, policymakers, researchers, journal publishers, systematic reviewers, guideline developers, producers of reference and learning materials, journalists, social scientists, library and information professionals.

WHO and HIFA are collaborating to:

- Promote sharing and learning of experience and expertise around the maintenance of essential health services during and after the pandemic

- Promote uptake of the who guidance (Maintaining Essential Health Services: Operational Guidance for the COVID-19 Context, June 2020)

Best wishes, Neil

Coordinator, WHO-HIFA project on Essential Health Services and COVID-19

https://www.hifa.org/projects/essential-health-services-and-covid-19

Let's build a future where every person has access to reliable healthcare information and is protected from misinformation - Join HIFA: www.hifa.org

HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is global coordinator of the HIFA global health movement (Healthcare Information For All - www.hifa.org ), a global community with more than 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting on six global forums in four languages in collaboration with WHO. HIFA brings stakeholders together to accelerate progress towards universal access to reliable healthcare information.

Twitter: @hifa_org neil@hifa.org