The acronym is pandemic and EMRIC put together.

Closed

For many (around 20) years the public services in the EMR, each of which is responsible for disaster and crisis management (including infectious disease control), firefighting and emergency medical assistance (including hospitals), have been working together within EMRIC. The partners in EMRIC are also responsible for the implementation and enforcement of the European, bi- and trinational and regional agreements in the above mentioned thematic areas within the EMR. The partnership is supported by the EMRIC office. Within EMRIC many matters are regulated in cooperation agreements and arrangements insofar as they fall within the regional competences of the partners. The services responsible for emergency care and the services for infectious disease control meet regularly under the "flag" of EMRIC. In the Covid crisis, however, the regional structures were overruled by national/ federal structures, which often took administrative-political and medical measures that were by no means compatible with each other. The obvious Euregional cooperation was suddenly no longer self-evident, while the need remained. This, therefore, requires a different approach within EMRIC and calls for new agreements at the Euregional level. In particular, the agreements concerning the exchange of information (and how to explain to the citizen that the measures in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands differ) on the administrative and operational level and the distribution of ICU patients changed due to national/federal policy on this; having people tested in neighbouring countries also became virtually impossible. The purchase of personal protective equipment experienced some setbacks.  This project aims to make use of the advantages of the border location also during such major crises. Research will be carried out into the effects of the measures and their impact on the EMR and (the health of) its citizens and the possibilities for improving the Euregional information exchange and broadening the cooperation between the ICU departments of the hospitals will be investigated. A study within this project will also examine the legal aspects of cross-border transport. The Twente region and the Zuid-Limburg region (GGD) in collaboration with the ministries of public health in the Netherlands and NRW have been working together for some time on the possibilities of reaching a uniform agreement in the field of cross-border ambulance care. It is precisely during this Corona crisis that the number of transports, especially for ICU patients, has increased. Twente will therefore also make use of this research.  There is a need for a Euregional Early Warning System and, to this end, some of the existing tools for information exchange will be adapted and improved. The request for mutual assistance (ambulances and Medical Intensive Care Units) will be more automated in order to reduce the pressure on the overstaffed dispatch centres, infectious disease control departments and crisis teams in the event of such major crises as the Covid crisis. A euregional centre will be set up for the joint procurement of reliable protection equipment and euregional testing capabilities. This call will also take into account the additional costs already incurred and the costs still to be incurred to cope with the crisis in the EMR (Euregional Outbreak management). EMRIC (lead partner), ITEM, the MUMC, the German-speaking Community, the Province of Liège and the EGTC-EMR will work together on these improvements. In particular, the tools and the euregional ICU network also directly benefit the Limburg-North Safety Region (adjacent to the Kreis Heinsberg and Limburg (B)), because the two safety regions in Limburg have a single dispatch centre and the safety region Limburg North is involved in several EMRIC work groups. The safety region Limburg North is not part of the EMR and not a partner in EMRIC. The Civil protection of the federal state of Belgium, the federal ministry of health Belgium, the federal German organisation Technisches Hilfswerk are also represented in some of the EMRIC work groups.  The management of the products will be the responsibility of the EMRIC partnership, which guarantees the continuity of developed products even after the project has been completed. Synergies with other projects, which will be submitted within this call, and in particular the Euprevent project, have already been considered beforehand. There is a clear division of tasks between EuPrevent and EMRIC. As the names say, EuPrevent looks at the preventive side of diseases among the population. EMRIC's tasks include crisis management (including the outbreak of infectious diseases) and implementing the laws of the three countries, as well as international cooperation. EMRIC also implements international treaties at EU, national, federal and local level. An advisory committee consisting of senior scientists and administrators will supervise the project.

Medium