Improving Healthcare Resilience in Wars: Insights From Recent Conflicts

Seyma Handan Akyon, Gülşah Onur, Pavlo Kolesnik, Zaheer Nazzal

Keywords: Patient Safety, Disaster Medicine, Healthcare facilities, Warfare, Disaster Planning

Review:

Our review underscores the imperative to strengthen security protocols in medical settings in the midst of war and highlights the criticality of protecting essential resources, including water, electricity, medical services, infrastructure and basic medical supplies to ensure adequate support to the sick and exposed population. Through analysis of the conflıcts in Ukraine and Palestine, we aim to draw lessons from these recent conflicts to formulate approaches to strengthen the resilience of health systems. Our focus includes protecting critical infrastructure, fortifying medical facilities against hostilities, preparing hospital environments for physical challenges, and ensuring accessibility to alternative sources of essential services such as water and electricity. Our recommendations to enhance the resilience of health systems include designing comprehensive emergency response frameworks for medical centers, guaranteeing stable energy supplies under pressure, developing concrete defenses for medical venues in conflict zones, organizing response mechanisms for hazardous scenarios, including chemical, biological, nuclear or radiological threats, integrating advanced health technologies, establishing effective water supply systems and securing ample reserves of nutritional supplies and essential equipment.

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