Czech Caritas partners with Visegrad Fund to strengthen Georgian health care system
February 12, 2021 News

Czech Caritas partners with Visegrad Fund to strengthen Georgian health care system

Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, Caritas Czech Republic (CCR) has been assisting Georgian health care system to respond adequately to suddenly emerged challenges. Under its new partnership with Visegrad Fund, Czech Caritas extends its support to strengthen technical as well as professional capacities of so-called “COVID hotels” and rural ambulatories in West Georgia.

Thanks to the project financed by Visegrad countries, that is the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, together with the contribution from South Korea, the capacities of COVID-hotels will be increased through the provision of trainings as well as medical equipment. Moreover, the project will contribute to improvement of the technical capacities of rural doctors in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and other regions in West Georgia through the delivery of IT equipment, personal protective equipment (PPE) and other medical equipment.

Mild cases to be treated in "COVID HOTELS"

Georgian government has developed unique approach through creating Covid-hotels to manage Covid19 pandemic. With this approach it was possible to divide management of COVID-19 cases by their severity: while fully equipped and professionally staffed in-patient medical facilities (like hospitals) should be reserved for the most severe cases, milder cases should be treated in so-called “COVID hotels” or at home settings under the supervision and remote management by the the primary health care providers.

To prevent unnecessary hospitalization and provide quality medical services, the “COVID hotels” need to further strengthen both professional as well as technical capacities. Specifically, they need adequate equipment such as oxygen concentrators to ensure immediate assistance in case the condition of a patient aggravates without the need to hospitalize the patient. Moreover, the staff of the “COVID hotels” requires more knowledge on how to monitor patients’ conditions and how to deliver service to patients with specific needs, like persons with different kinds of disabilities.

In total, 200 doctors and 100 nurses working in the “COVID hotels” around the country are delivering medical services from 400 to 3000 patients on a daily basis depending on the epidemiologic situation in the country.

Caritas to train the staff and deliver medical equipment

Thanks to the new project funded by Visegrad Fund with contribution from South Korea´s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Czech Caritas will train the medical staff of the “COVID hotels” and will also deliver at least 55 oxygen concentrators to the “COVID hotels” and 20 computers and PPE to selected rural doctors in West Georgia.

“Together with the primary healthcare providers, the COVID hotels proved to play an important role in preventing unnecessary hospitalization of COVID-19 patients. Thus, supporting the improvement of the quality of service both at the primary healthcare as well as the COVID hotels is essentially important,” said Tamar Kurtanidze, project manager at CCR adding that Czech Caritas will work on this project in close cooperation with Georgia´s Ministry of Health.

Czech Caritas keeps supporting Georgia in the fight against COVID-19

The support against COVID-19 pandemic has become one of the main activities of Caritas Czech Republic in Georgia. After the outbreak, team of Czech Caritas started to identify immediate needs and then tailor the projects in response to them. Seeing the positive development in the improvement of Georgia’s primary healthcare system, UNICEF decided to join the partnership with Czech Caritas and add interventions in maternal and child health to the existing support to primary health care development provided by CCR thanks to the funding from CzechAid.

Within CzechAid funded project, the unified electronic management information system for sharing the data about COVID testing has been improved and handed over to NCDC. Currently, E-Queue Management system is being developed and it will be used for logistical support of the COVID-19 vaccination process in Georgia.

For more information about CCR´s responses to COVID-19, please read this article.

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