British troops as they landed in Freetown. Photo: Alice Truman
The British government has published a plan aimed at ending Ebola in Sierra Leone. It has sent military and humanitarian staff who have arrived in Freetown to spearhead the UK’s £100 million mission to contain and control the outbreak.
The more than 40 military personnel and humanitarian staff will oversee the construction of Ebola medical facilities in the country.
This follows a meeting on Tuesday the UK’s emergency committee COBR which was chaired by the Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond. It reviewed progress in the UK’s "commitment to boost significantly public health provision across Sierra Leone, including support for 700 Ebola treatment beds" a release says.
It plans to work alongside the United Nations and Sierra Leone, "to mobilise international medical teams and support further treatment centres".
International Development Secretary, Justine Greening called on world leaders at the UN "to back UK and international efforts to respond to the worsening crisis in west Africa - which has become one the world’s most extreme global emergencies".
He said Britain would be hosting "an international conference in London on 2 October to raise even greater awareness of the disease and what is needed to contain it , encourage ambitious pledges and show our solidarity with the Government and People of Sierra Leone and the region.”
The UK’s plan (see it in full on page 11) comes as part of its commitment to support 700 Ebola treatment beds across Sierra Leone which will be constructed in areas including Port Loko, Freetown, Makeni, and Bo with 205 beds in Freetown and Kenema already in the delivery pipeline.
As a part of this some 164 staff of the UK National Health Service have volunteered to help those affected by Ebola.
Following is the UK Plan:
UK action plan to defeat Ebola in Sierra Leone
The Governments of the UK and Sierra Leone urge international partners to contribute to the fight against the Ebola outbreak.
The UK has committed to support 700 Ebola treatment beds in the coming months. The most urgent priority is for international medical and management teams to staff and run new Ebola treatment centres. We also urgently need more NGO capacity on the ground supporting work at the community level.
This note provides a basic overview of the UK’s action and sets out our requests for assistance to deliver the plan.
This plan alone is not enough to defeat Ebola in Sierra Leone. Other governments are urged to step up their support for beds beyond the 700 and for increased community level care.
1. Command and control The UK will set up a forward command and control logistical hub that will provide the backbone of infrastructure, commodities, training and management needed to scale up the response in Sierra Leone. The hub will be staffed by a large multi-agency team including military, humanitarian and health experts. It will work closely with international partners and with the Government of Sierra Leone.
Offers of technical support to this central organisational and logistics function are needed, including information management, Geographic Information Systems support and urgent additional capacity to maintain air support for personnel and supplies.
2. Treatment centres
The UK is already supporting over 200 Ebola treatment beds in Freetown and Kenema.
Using military oversight and local contractors we will establish the physical infrastructure for an additional 500 new beds. We are building at least four new Ebola Treatment Facilities (ETFs) near urban centres where demand is projected to be highest. In order of priority we will establish these in Port Loko, Freetown, Makeni, and Bo.
UK ACTION PLAN TO DEFEAT EBOLA IN SIERRA LEONE
Background paper: An international call for assistance=
The UK will cover all the construction and operating costs for these 500 new facilities and will pay for the associated commodities.
The priority need is for international teams that can provide the management and medical care for these 500 beds. We urgently need offers from organisations who will run and manage the facilities.
WHO have estimated the absolute minimum numbers of international workers needed as follows:
Facility management teams – over 100 people International clinical staff – over 600 immediately and more as teams rotate out. This includes doctors, nurses, nurse aids, pharmacologists, pharmacists and logistics support. Management support for over 2,500 local clinical staff.
3. Training international and national health workers
The UK will offer training for foreign medical teams supporting the 700 beds. The UK is already supporting the World Health Organisation to train 90 national health workers a week. This will be significantly increased to deliver the hundreds of trained national health workers that are needed.
The UK will cover the full salary and operating costs for the national staff, and if needed, for foreign medical teams.
We urgently need offers of additional international medical trainers to boost training capacity.
4. Health care for international staff
The UK is already building a 62 bed treatment facility in Kerrytown, 40km south of Freetown. The Facility will be in two integrated parts, using shared services: a 12 bed tented unit for national and international Ebola health workers; and a 50 bed open access unit for any victims of the disease.
The 12 beds will be protected for all national and international health workers who become infected with Ebola and provide them with a UK-comparable standard of care. Our partner agency will be Save the Children.
The UK commits to provide the same standard of care for all international staff working on the 700 beds as we do for British Nationals. This includes access to the Kerrytown facility for international health care workers, when it is up and running, and where the quality of care will be comparable to that available in the UK.
5. Other care and infection control services
The UK will work with partners already on the ground to significantly scale up support for social mobilisation, contact tracing, burial services and community level care. Much of the transmission takes place within the community, in the interval between Ebola patients becoming infectious and being isolated.
Working with WHO and UNICEF, the UK is urgently assessing then most appropriate approach to tackle this issue. We stand ready to scale up our work in this area rapidly.
We also need additional laboratory capacity to ensure that cases are identified early and to increase the speed of discharge to free up beds in treatment facilities.
International organisations and NGOs who can support work in the community are needed. We will be issuing a call for proposals through the Department for International Development’s Rapid Response Facility.
6. Financial need
We estimate that this plan will cost at least £100 million to deliver the command and control hub, construct and operate 700 beds, and to pay for international and national staff, associated commodities and community care. The UK is already making a substantial contribution and is committing to the full £100 million.
But this is not enough to defeat Ebola in Sierra Leone. More financial support can urgently help extend activities beyond this plan – to scale up support to community care and treatment and to provide commodities, more treatment beds and other essential needs for the Government of Sierra Leone.
For governments who are not able to provide technical support but to provide additional financial contributions the UK will work with the UN to direct financial contributions to where they are needed, including the Government of Sierra Leone and to international NGO partner organisations.
The UK will issue soon a call for proposals to the NGO sector to ensure that no NGO with the capacity to support treatment or other work in the community is going unfunded.
Support is also requested from private sector organisations, particularly with regard to air transport and logistics management.
(C) Politico 23/09/14
