Upon noting that Mount Lebanon Hospital had reached full capacity, for instance, clear instructions were sent to paramedics, PHEOC representatives, the Lebanese Red Cross, scouts and civil defence teams to send patients to other hospitals.

In 2007, following lessons learned from the July 2006 war and in line with the International Health Regulations (IHR), WHO supported the Ministry of Public Health as it established the Emergency Operations Cell (EOC) at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Lebanon’s national referral centre for casualties and quarantine centre for communicable diseases. The EOC played an important role in casualty referral during the 2019 riots and in the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, WHO supported the Ministry of Public Health as it established the PHEOC – mandated the dual role of coordinating preparedness for, and the response to, health emergencies – on the Ministry’s own premises. PHEOC went on to play an instrumental role in the response to the 2023 cholera outbreak. Through PHEOC, WHO provided training during the cholera outbreak in 27 hospitals, covering infection prevention and control as well as cholera case management. Currently, WHO is conducting refresher courses and plans to extend the training to an additional 22 hospitals in the North and Akkar Governorates. PHEOC is also temporarily relocated back to EOC at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital due to the security situation.

WHO’s role in supporting PHEOC includes rehabilitation of the assigned space and the provision of office furniture and telecommunication equipment, technical support in the formulation and updating of plans, including those for cholera, mpox and trauma, assessment of referral hospitals and the training of staff to manage mass casualty events.

Through an intensive capacity-building initiative, WHO trained a group of trainers who went on to train over 5600 health care workers across 125 hospitals nationwide in mass casualty management, and established vital connections with relevant stakeholders, including disaster risk management teams, emergency medical services and hospital referral pathways. WHO also continuously supported PHEOC’s core team of staff.

Collaboration between WHO and the Ministry of Public Health focused on the development of assessment and reporting tools within the District Health Information System 2 (DHIS2) to effectively capture emergency response data at multiple levels and then share the information with stakeholders and partners.

“We serve everyone, including health facilities across the country. Thanks to WHO support, we are able to accelerate and structure this coordination,” says PHEOC Manager Mrs Wahida Ghalayini.