Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been an urgent need to quickly train doctors and provide them with guidelines for the clinical management of patients with COVID-19. A joint team of experts from Uzbekistan and the World Health Organization has developed a new training program for the management of critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2. 

It was developed in line with WHO guidelines for clinical management and is designed to enable clinicians to better manage critically ill patients, including those with influenza, in intensive care units. The new course, which can be completed in at least 36 hours, was created by specialists from the National Center for Advanced Training of Physicians in Tashkent in collaboration with WHO country and regional offices with the support of USAID.

The course provides a systematic approach to patient management, emphasizes the importance of infection prevention and control for healthcare professionals, sets new standards of care, emphasizes the importance of pandemic preparedness and ethical standards, and includes international best practices in the management of patients in intensive care units.

The World Health Organization is improving approaches to the treatment of diseases associated with COVID, including in Uzbekistan, adapting them to the activities carried out by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan, said Gulchekhra Khamrayeva, Head of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care in Pediatrics, Development Center professional qualifications of medical workers.

As part of the clinical management of COVID patients, Dr. Caroline Brown, Program Manager for Infection Risk Management in Emergency Situations at the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, came to Tashkent and met with the First Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Amirullo Inoyatov, and Ministry of Health staff. 

The parties discussed a number of issues related to the revision of national guidelines for the clinical management of patients with COVID-19, the latest updates in this area, a possible increase in the supply of oxygen to hospitals and many other topics. During the visit, a round table was held with the teaching staff of the state medical educational institutions of Uzbekistan, at which a number of practical clinical issues in the management of patients with COVID-19 were discussed.

Uzbekistan has made great efforts to train its clinical staff, said Dr. Caroline Brown.

- In an emergency, time is of the essence, medical staff need to get through quickly, so we recommend that the MOH make extra efforts to ensure that all medical facilities/staff have access to online training to quickly disseminate knowledge.

We also recommend the creation of a single national online learning platform based on national clinical management guidelines. National guidelines for clinical management should be regularly updated to reflect new data; they should continue to be based on WHO recommendations that provide a comprehensive assessment of the global evidence.