• Common basic criteria have been agreed upon for the development of the necessary contingency plans to face possible increase in healthcare demand.
• The Public Health Committee is to define flu at-risk groups following WHO instruction and international expert advice.
• Institutional campaigns will be designed in the next few months to raise awareness of the disease in the population.

Spanish Minister for Health and Social Policies Trinidad Jiménez has presided over the extraordinary meeting of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health Service (CISNS) today to analyse the evolution of the A/H1N1 flu in Spain. The Minister and the Health and Sanitation authorities at the Autonomous Communities have agreed to strengthen coordination in order to respond cohesively to a worsening A/H1N1 flu scenario in Spain in autumn and winter.

Ms Jiménez informed regional health authorities of the contents of the meetings held in Mexico and Sweden. She also spelled out Spain’s position with regard to the development of common European strategies and criteria leading to effective measures against A/H1N1 flue that bring confidence to the population.

These common criteria include vaccine purchase and at-risk group definition. To this end, there will be an extraordinary EU Council of Health Ministers in October, Ms Jiménez informed.

In this respect, the CISNS unanimously ratified the agreement reached in Mérida on June 3 to buy vaccines for 30% of the population plus a strategic 10%, based on epidemiological principles. This means getting 37M doses (2 per inhabitant) by next autumn. In addition, the Spanish Health Minister announced that 5.3M pill antiviral treatments would be purchased to increase strategic reserves.

Also the CISNS agreed to ask the Public Health Committee to define at-risk groups, reaching unanimous definitions following the expert advice given by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Union. This committee shall also set the criteria underlying the next vaccine campaign against seasonal flu.

GETTING HEALTH SERVICES READY

The CISNS has also agreed on the common basic criteria for the necessary contingency plans to get the health service ready to face an increase in healthcare demand in autumn and winter.

These criteria stem from the work done by health services in Autonomous Communities, which are ready to be activated in August, and they include:

• Coordination mechanisms at the regional level.
• Patient classification models for citizens demanding medical care by phone or in doctors’ offices and hospitals.
• Identification of available resources (both human and material).
• Analysis of necessary resources (both human and material) to face an influenza pandemic wave as defined by the American Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
• Crowded situation control protocols in both primary and specialised healthcare facilities (including the identification of essential/non-essential services, the authorisation of extra resources, and so on).
• Protection measures for healthcare workers.
• Periodical response evaluation systems.

Regarding the population, awareness-raising action will be taken in the next few months (street billboards, brochures, Internet ads, etc.), giving information on the disease as well as effective prevention advice.
In line with this transparent, coordinated work, the Spanish Ministry for Health and Social Policies is finalising a common strategy to ensure that companies have their own contingency plans and get information on the evolution of the disease. This measure, which is being discussed with company management and trade unions and involves the participation of Autonomous Communities, is reducing the pandemic’s  social and economic impact.