Corrigendum: A novel approach to utilizing the essential public health functions in Ireland's health system recovery and reform.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1074356.].

A synthesis of concepts of resilience to inform operationalization of health systems resilience in recovery from disruptive public health events including COVID-19.

This article is part of the Research Topic 'Health Systems Recovery in the Context of COVID-19 and Protracted Conflict' Health systems resilience has become a ubiquitous concept as countries respond to and recover from crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, war and conflict, natural disasters, and economic stressors inter alia. However, the operational scope and definition of health systems resilience to inform health systems recovery and the building back better agenda have not been elaborated in the literature and discourse to date. When widely used terms and their operational definitions appear nebulous or are not consistently used, it can perpetuate misalignment between stakeholders and investments. This can hinder progress in integrated approaches such as strengthening primary health care (PHC) and the essential public health functions (EPHFs) in health and allied sectors as well as hinder progress toward key global objectives such as recovering and sustaining progress toward universal health coverage (UHC), health security, healthier populations, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper represents a conceptual synthesis based on 45 documents drawn from peer-reviewed papers and gray literature sources and supplemented by unpublished data drawn from the extensive operational experience of the co-authors in the application of health systems resilience at country level. The results present a synthesis of global understanding of the concept of resilience in the context of health systems. We report on different aspects of health systems resilience and conclude by proposing a clear operational definition of health systems resilience that can be readily applied by different stakeholders to inform current global recovery and beyond.

A novel approach to utilizing the essential public health functions in Ireland's health system recovery and reform

This article is part of the Research Topic ‘Health Systems Recovery in the Context of COVID-19 and Protracted Conflict.' The COVID-19 pandemic presented a challenge to health systems and exposed weaknesses in public health capacities globally. As Ireland looks to recovery, strengthening public health capacities to support health systems resilience has been identified as a priority. The Essential Public Health Functions (EPHFs) provide an integrated approach to health systems strengthening with allied sectors and their operationalization supports health systems and multi-sectoral engagement to meet population needs and anticipate evolving demands. The Health Systems Resilience team (World Health Organization, HQ) in collaboration with the Department of Health (Ireland) developed a novel approach to the assessment of the EPHFs in Ireland. The approach involved a strategic and focused review of the delivery and consideration of EPHFs in relation to policy and planning, infrastructure, service delivery, coordination and integration, monitoring and evaluation and learning. Informed by a literature review and key document search, key stakeholder mapping and key informant interviews, lessons learned from experience with COVID-19 nationally and internationally, strengths as well as potential areas of improvement to optimize delivery of EPHFs were identified. Mapping of the EPHFs in Ireland revealed that there is evidence of delivery of all 12 EPHFs to varying degrees;however a number of challenges were identified, as well as numerous strengths and opportunities. Recommendations to optimize the delivery of EPHFs in Ireland include to integrate and coordinate EPHFs, increase the visibility of the public health agenda, leverage existing mechanisms, recognize and develop the workforce, and address issues with the Health Information System. There is a public health reform process currently underway in Ireland, with some of these recommendations already being addressed. The findings of this process can help further inform and support the reform process. Given the current focus on strengthening public health capacities globally, the findings in Ireland have applicability and relevance in other WHO regions and member states for health systems recovery and building back better, fairer and more resilient health systems.

Towards applying the essential public health functions for building health systems resilience: A renewed list and key enablers for operationalization.

The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change-related events, protracted conflicts, economic stressors and other health challenges, call for strong public health orientation and leadership in health system strengthening and policies. Applying the essential public health functions (EPHFs) represents a holistic operational approach to public health, which is considered to be an integrated, sustainable, and cost-effective means for supporting universal health coverage, health security and improved population health and wellbeing. As a core component of the Primary Health Care (PHC) Operational Framework, EPHFs also support the continuum of health services from health promotion and protection, disease prevention to treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative services. Comprehensive delivery of EPHFs through PHC-oriented health systems with multisectoral participation is therefore vital to meet population health needs, tackle public health threats and build resilience. In this perspective, we present a renewed EPHF list consisting of twelve functions as a reference to foster country-level operationalisation, based on available authoritative lists and global practices. EPHFs are presented as a conceptual bridge between prevailing siloed efforts in health systems and allied sectors. We also highlight key enablers to support effective implementation of EPHFs, including high-level political commitment, clear national structures for institutional stewardship on EPHFs, multisectoral accountability and systematic assessment. As countries seek to transform health systems in the context of recovery from COVID-19 and other public health emergencies, the renewed EPHF list and enablers can inform public health reform, PHC strengthening, and more integrated recovery efforts to build resilient health systems capable of managing complex health challenges for all people.

A novel approach to utilizing the essential public health functions in Ireland's health system recovery and reform.

This article is part of the Research Topic 'Health Systems Recovery in the Context of COVID-19 and Protracted Conflict.' The COVID-19 pandemic presented a challenge to health systems and exposed weaknesses in public health capacities globally. As Ireland looks to recovery, strengthening public health capacities to support health systems resilience has been identified as a priority. The Essential Public Health Functions (EPHFs) provide an integrated approach to health systems strengthening with allied sectors and their operationalization supports health systems and multi-sectoral engagement to meet population needs and anticipate evolving demands. The Health Systems Resilience team (World Health Organization, HQ) in collaboration with the Department of Health (Ireland) developed a novel approach to the assessment of the EPHFs in Ireland. The approach involved a strategic and focused review of the delivery and consideration of EPHFs in relation to policy and planning, infrastructure, service delivery, coordination and integration, monitoring and evaluation and learning. Informed by a literature review and key document search, key stakeholder mapping and key informant interviews, lessons learned from experience with COVID-19 nationally and internationally, strengths as well as potential areas of improvement to optimize delivery of EPHFs were identified. Mapping of the EPHFs in Ireland revealed that there is evidence of delivery of all 12 EPHFs to varying degrees; however a number of challenges were identified, as well as numerous strengths and opportunities. Recommendations to optimize the delivery of EPHFs in Ireland include to integrate and coordinate EPHFs, increase the visibility of the public health agenda, leverage existing mechanisms, recognize and develop the workforce, and address issues with the Health Information System. There is a public health reform process currently underway in Ireland, with some of these recommendations already being addressed. The findings of this process can help further inform and support the reform process. Given the current focus on strengthening public health capacities globally, the findings in Ireland have applicability and relevance in other WHO regions and member states for health systems recovery and building back better, fairer and more resilient health systems.

Towards applying the essential public health functions for building health systems resilience: A renewed list and key enablers for operationalization

The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change-related events, protracted conflicts, economic stressors and other health challenges, call for strong public health orientation and leadership in health system strengthening and policies. Applying the essential public health functions (EPHFs) represents a holistic operational approach to public health, which is considered to be an integrated, sustainable, and cost-effective means for supporting universal health coverage, health security and improved population health and wellbeing. As a core component of the Primary Health Care (PHC) Operational Framework, EPHFs also support the continuum of health services from health promotion and protection, disease prevention to treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative services. Comprehensive delivery of EPHFs through PHC-oriented health systems with multisectoral participation is therefore vital to meet population health needs, tackle public health threats and build resilience. In this perspective, we present a renewed EPHF list consisting of twelve functions as a reference to foster country-level operationalisation, based on available authoritative lists and global practices. EPHFs are presented as a conceptual bridge between prevailing siloed efforts in health systems and allied sectors. We also highlight key enablers to support effective implementation of EPHFs, including high-level political commitment, clear national structures for institutional stewardship on EPHFs, multisectoral accountability and systematic assessment. As countries seek to transform health systems in the context of recovery from COVID-19 and other public health emergencies, the renewed EPHF list and enablers can inform public health reform, PHC strengthening, and more integrated recovery efforts to build resilient health systems capable of managing complex health challenges for all people.

COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plans from 106 countries: a review from a health systems resilience perspective.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has exposed long-standing fragmentation in health systems strengthening efforts for health security and universal health coverage while these objectives are largely interdependent and complementary. In this prevailing background, we reviewed countries' COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plans (CPRPs) to assess the extent of integration of non-COVID-19 essential health service continuity considerations alongside emergency response activities. We searched for COVID-19 planning documents from governments and ministries of health, World Health Organization (WHO) country offices and United Nations (UN) country teams. We developed document review protocols using global guidance from the WHO and UN and the health systems resilience literature. After screening, we analysed 154 CPRPs from 106 countries. The majority of plans had a high degree of alignment with pillars of emergency response such as surveillance (99%), laboratory systems (96%) and COVID-19-specific case management (97%). Less than half considered maintaining essential health services (47%); 41% designated a mechanism for health system-wide participation in emergency planning; 34% considered subnational service delivery; 95% contained infection prevention and control (IPC) activities and 29% considered quality of care; and 24% were budgeted for and 7% contained monitoring and evaluation of essential health services. To improve, ongoing and future emergency planning should proactively include proportionate activities, resources and monitoring for essential health services to reduce excess mortality and morbidity. Specifically, this entails strengthening subnational health services with local stakeholder engagement in planning; ensuring a dedicated focus in emergency operations structures to maintain health systems resilience for non-emergency health services; considering all domains of quality in health services along with IPC; and building resilient monitoring capacity for timely and reliable tracking of health systems functionality including service utilization and health outcomes. An integrated approach to planning should be pursued as health systems recover from COVID-19 disruptions and take actions to build back better.

No evidence of secondary transmission of COVID-19 from children attending school in Ireland, 2020.

As many countries begin to lift some of the restrictions to contain COVID-19 spread, lack of evidence of transmission in the school setting remains. We examined Irish notifications of SARS-CoV2 in the school setting before school closures on 12 March 2020 and identified no paediatric transmission. This adds to current evidence that children do not appear to be drivers of transmission, and we argue that reopening schools should be considered safe accompanied by certain measures.