An independent Panel of Experts in their 28-page report have highly criticized World Health Organisation (WHO) and its inaction, and lack of proper handling of the EBOLA crisis. The Ebola crisis proves the World Health Organization (WHO) lacks the “capacity and culture” to deal with global health emergencies, says a damning independent report, which ironically was commissioned by the WHO itself.
The review panel was highly critical of WHO in its highly late reaction to declare a public health emergency of international concern. “There seems to have been a hope that the crisis could be managed by good diplomacy rather than by scaling up emergency action,” the report stated.
The panel was led by Dame Barbara Stocking, president of a college in Britain and former chief executive of the charity Oxfamcalled for the WHO to establish a new division with new staff and a new director that would coordinate emergency preparation, coordination and response. That was one of the only bright spots in the report for the WHO. Off lately there has been a demand of handling the leadership of such crisis to UN or create an independent body ,but the panel rejected these proposals opting instead for the less extreme recommendation of fundamental changes within the WHO.
Howeverm the panel emphasized that the new division, which they called the WHO Centre for Health Emergency Preparedness and Response, must not just duplicate and merge the outbreak and humanitarian work the organization is currently responsible for.
The panel recommended the urgency of these changes stressing that the world cannot wait for another period of inaction.
