Strengthening public health emergency operations centres in Europe through exchange of good practices

Update

A three-day training workshop organised by ECDC and WHO/Europe and hosted by the Slovenian National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) brought together participants from the EU and a number of accession countries to strengthen their national Public Health Emergency Operations Centres (PHEOCs) and to ensure they operate in line with EU and international standards.

Strengthening public health emergency operations centres in Europe through exchange of good practices
Picture taken at a three-day training workshop organised by ECDC and WHO/Europe and hosted by the Slovenian National Institute of Public Health (NIPH).

Participants from EU Member States, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Moldova and Ukraine, took part in the training in Ljubljana on 5–7 October, where they explored practical ways to apply the knowledge they gained, using approaches that can be adapted to their own needs and expanded as required. 

Learning from the experience of Slovenia and other EU countries provided the national authorities from EU candidate countries with the opportunity to better understand how PHEOCs work in EU member states, where the model has been progressively developed in alignment with EU and international standards. 

Participants also explored day-to-day operations, exchanged experiences on epidemic intelligence, early detection, preparedness and response, and took part in practical exercises on emergency activation protocols.

PHEOCs play a central role during public health emergencies, by bringing together information, expertise, and coordination to support timely and coherent decision-making and response. The event therefore also played an important role in fostering professional networks among PHEOC practitioners across EU member states and candidate countries, supporting continued collaboration and peer learning.

The event was held within the framework of the EOC-NET European Regional Forum, a joint platform established by ECDC and WHO/Europe to strengthen PHEOCs. It was also supported by ECDC’s Accession Support Action, which aims to strengthen the capacity of countries in the area of communicable diseases prevention and control and support the implementation of EU standards in public health.