WHO: New Platform Tells How European Countries Respond to COVID-19

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday announced the launch of the COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor (HSRM), a new online platform to provide countries and stakeholders in the WHO European Region with evidence of how national health systems are responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

“This tool is a breakthrough resource for health systems decision-makers tackling the pandemic,” says Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe.

According to WHO, as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in countries across Europe, health systems are facing enormous pressure to both manage COVID-19 patients and maintain essential services. As these challenges grow, governments and policy-makers are calling for clear and comparable health systems evidence to inform their policies and to strengthen their capacity to respond to this unprecedented crisis.

The new website will systematically map and analyse health system responses to the pandemic across the European region.

Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe.

“By mapping and analysing country narratives on response and providing essential data and evidence on COVID-19, the platform will be of real value to those who are responding to the crisis across the region and seeking to mitigate its far-reaching consequences,” WHO’s regional director for Europe said.

Being launched as a pilot with selected country data, HSRM will be updated regularly with information from all countries in the Region. It will offer cross-country comparisons for analyses of the measures being taken by national authorities and will also track wider public health initiatives.

The COVID-19 Health Systems Response Monitor (HSRM) currently includes up-to-date information for the following countries: Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Russian Federation, Serbia, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

More countries will be added to the platform in the coming days.

The COVID-19 HSRM is a joint undertaking between the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the European Commission and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.

Th new online platform can be seen here.