Lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic in selected countries to inform strengthening of public health systems: a qualitative study
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted governments internationally to consider strengthening their public health systems. To support the work of Ireland's Public Health Reform Expert Advisory Group, the Health Information and Quality Authority, an independent governmental agency, was asked to describe the lessons learnt regarding the public health response to COVID-19 internationally and the applicability of this response for future pandemic preparedness.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews with key public health representatives from nine countries were conducted. Interviews were conducted in March and April 2022 remotely via Zoom and were recorded. Notes were taken by two researchers, and a thematic analysis undertaken.
Results: Lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic related to three main themes: 1) setting policy; 2) delivering public health interventions; and 3) providing effective communication. Real-time surveillance, evidence synthesis, and cross-sectoral collaboration were reported as essential for policy setting; it was noted that having these functions established prior to the pandemic would lead to a more efficient implementation in a health emergency. Delivering public health interventions such as testing, contact tracing, and vaccination were key to limiting and or mitigating the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, a number of challenges were highlighted such as staff capacity and burnout, delays in vaccination procurement, and reduced delivery of regular healthcare services. Clear, consistent, and regular communication of the scientific evidence was key to engaging citizens with mitigation strategies. However, these communication strategies had to compete with an infodemic of information being circulated, particularly through social media.
Conclusions: Overall, functions relating to policy setting, public health interventions, and communication are key to pandemic response. Ideally, these should be established in the preparedness phase so that they can be rapidly scaled-up during a pandemic.
Funding
Health Research Board (HRB) under grant no. HRB-CICER-2016-1871
HRB Emerging investigator award [EIA-2019-09]
EU PANDEM-2 grant
European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement No 883285
History
Comments
The original article is available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/Published Citation
Cardwell K, et al. Lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic in selected countries to inform strengthening of public health systems: a qualitative study. Public Health. 2023;225:343-352.Publication Date
17 November 2023External DOI
PubMed ID
37979311Department/Unit
- Public Health and Epidemiology
- School of Population Health
Publisher
Elsevier B.V.,Version
- Published Version (Version of Record)