Markaz proposes a national disaster management plan

KUWAIT: Kuwait Financial Centre “Markaz” has released a number of out-of-the-box ideas for crisis management in the time of Corona. Markaz said that the management of the Novel Coronavirus (also called COVID19) crisis should be through a country-wide National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP) that can enable Kuwait to tackle the problems in a more organized way. A properly conceived NDMP can enable resumption of services following a crisis. An emergency communication plan is integral to NDMP as good and swift communication can calm nerves easily and enable people to return to normal routine at the earliest. While the suggested NDMP is focused on Coronavirus issue, the concept of NDMP should be a permanent one so that Kuwait can face future crises with minimal dislocation.

The proposed initiatives include a number of various areas, such as consumables, capacity and capital expenditures, human resources, governance and critical health protocols as per the following:

A - Consumables

1. Adequate supply of PPE (Protective Personal Equipment) e.g. gowns, masks, PCR test kits, etc.

2. Availability of sanitizers in crowd centric areas like community gatherings, hospitals and malls.

3. More machines for temperature screening in the airport to avoid queue congestion.

4. Tracking bracelets for people who are quarantined.

B - Capacity and capital expenditures

1. Sufficient ICU rooms.

2. A warehouse with enough medical supply for 6 months at the very least.

3. Use of a mobile application for fingerprints in the airport to avoid scanning by an officer.

C - Human Resources

1. Emphasis on Medical and Paramedical staff and their morale through the social media.

2. Real-time tracking and monitoring of medical shipments from a country of origin.

3. Discourage annual leave for health care employees in this period with suitable incentives.

4. Reduce the working hours of medical staff.

5. To allow all the health care provider to enter the country after corona test clearance.

6. Arrangement of a portable clinic for large companies that have a vast workforce to check their daily temperature.

7. Termination of unnecessary unskilled labor.

D - Governance

1. Increase government regulations towards utilization time of medical facilities (limiting low priority cases such as plastic surgeries).

2. Halt all elective surgery (cold cases) in order to save the supply of medical resources.

3. Encourage digitization system everywhere.

4. Maintain transparency even with emergency contracts and avoid conflict of interest when applying any of the above.

E - Critical Health Protocols

1. Random temperature screening after prayers during their exit from prayer houses.

2. Apply strict policies in ministries, banks, companies to reduce mobilization of the employees from one department to another.

3. Random Temperature screening in high residency areas.