PANDEMRIC

PANDEMRIC is an amalgamation of the words pandemic and EMRIC. PANDEMRIC supports EMRIC in its work during the COVID crisis.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, it soon became clear that crisis policy was often implemented at the national level. Existing euregional networks were more or less overruled. Discoordination between the countries caused numerous bottlenecks in the border regions, which proved detrimental for citizens in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine (EMR). PANDEMRIC, therefore, focuses on promoting euregional cooperation in the event of a pandemic or large-scale outbreak of an infectious disease. 

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. The 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.  

 

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