On Monday 24 April, the European Commission announced the allocation of €106.2 million, shared between eight countries participating in the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania and Turkey), to create the emergency medical reserve called RescEU EMT (Emergency Medical Team). The reserve is named after the WHO EMT initiative, with which it is aligned.
The EU funding will allow the eight countries to set up three emergency medical teams including surgical and diagnostic services and 17 specialised care teams.
These specialised teams will provide intensive care, burn treatment, patient transport, advanced diagnostics, mother and child support, rehabilitation, mental health support, orthopaedic treatment, laboratory, oxygen supply and telecommunications support.
“The teams will be able to operate autonomously and support existing national healthcare facilities in case the latter are not able to cope with a given emergency”, the Commission states.
The RescEU EMT reserve will gradually become operational from 2024 and will allow a response to a wide range of disaster scenarios, the EU institution says. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)