Medical Logistics Specialist, Emergency Health Unit (EHU)
Summary
Save the Children’s newly established Emergency Health Unit (EHU) is designed to enhance and expand Save the Children’s life-saving work in acute emergencies, including disease outbreaks, with a focus frontline health (including surgical), nutrition and WASH programming. The EHU initiates direct health response within 3 days of a declared emergency, creating the space for in-country response teams to focus on longer term response planning and scale up. Responses will be based on Save the Children’s core public health approach, covering the biggest childhood killers, including public health outreach, coupled with direct clinical care, including primary and secondary health, with surgical capacity.
EHU programming will increase the early impact of Save the Children responses, saving more children’s lives and increasing donor confidence to raise funds for immediate and longer term work. The EHU aims to reach at least 1.5 million people directly and leverage $100m during the period of Save the Children’s new strategy (2016-18).
The EHU consists of a central team, based in the UK, and standing EHU response teams who are equipped to deliver response modules. At this point in time there are two types of EHU response teams: Outpatient/Primary Health Teams and In Patient Teams. Save the Children US will be managing one Primary Health Team of 7 people, including clinical, WASH and Logistics specialists who are able to mobilize responses in line with the outpatient modules. Each EHU Team will deploy 2-3 times per year for a period of 3 months, enabling a smooth transition to the longer term response. Team members working for the SCUS EHU team may be based globally and must be ready to deploy with the team when an emergency strikes.
Critical within the EHU is the need for consistent oversight and management of medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, and maintaining the overall operating framework for the medical team to respond immediately. As time will be divided between preparedness, in-country support and training on medical logistics, and emergency response, this role will need someone with a logistics background and the ability to manage the set-up, operations, and take down of a wide range of medical equipment while maintain safe storage and management of supplies. This role will support the set up and daily operations of the unit and will supervise and manage national logistics staff, under the remote supervision of a Logistics Manager.
Essential Duties, Responsibilities and Impact
Response Set-up & Management (50%)
- Ensure that Save the Children minimum standards of logistics procedures and country policies are implemented and adhered to in the area of responsibility, supporting relevant staff as required
- Taking direction from the Logistics Manager, whilst often taking the lead on medical logistics aspects of the logistics team to ensure successful set up, management and hand-over/close out of facilities including storage and medical tents, medical equipment and devices, cold chain, generators and WASH facilities.
- In collaboration with other team logisticians, support all logistical elements of a deployment:
- Ensure quality standards of drug management are met for each module deployed- which will include warehousing, cold chain management, stock rotation and control, pipeline management, consumption monitoring and ordering
- Manage drug donations with the Clinical Lead
- Responsible for the maintenance of medical equipment
- Ensure safe waste management of drug and medical supplies
- Ensure accurate reporting of drug movement stocks and consumption
- Recruit, train and manage national logistics staff involved in medical logistics
- Work with HR to ensure rapid recruitment of national logistics staff, including Logistics Assistants,
- Work with other logisticians to take on other logistical tasks as required
- Work with the logistics and medical team overseeing the reverse logistics of drugs and medical supplies and equipment. To review the National List of Registered Medicines and coordinate with the National Ministry of Health regarding the donation of unused medicines at the end of the deployment
- To ensure that gifting is legal, responsible, appropriate and in line with Save the Children policy
- Medicines that are not registered and cannot be donated to the host nation must be responsibly destroyed
- Document lessons learned and disseminate as appropriate
Emergency Preparedness (50%)
- Taking direction from the logistics manager work with the head of EHU OPD and HTU team to develop:
- Full drug, medical supplies, medical equipment and cold chain specifications to meet the needs of the Outpatient, Mass Vaccination, Disease Treatment and In-patient units.
- Develop packing lists for modules for ease of warehousing and rapid deployment
- Drug management guidelines, consumption tools and templates for ordering and reverse logistics and the SOP for medical logistics for each type of deployment (mobile clinics, vaccination and diarrhoeal disease outbreak).
- Identify core competencies for medical logistics and work with HR to be involved in the recruitment and orientation of logistics team and to identify relevant training for logistical team to ensure opportunities for multi-tasking across the logistics team
- Under the direction of the logistics manager work with key country programmes and regional offices on e-prep plans aiming to ensure that the EHU links in and supports SCI operational surge activities
Required Background and Experience, Skills and Behaviors
Essential
- Progressive experience with international NGOs in humanitarian medical logistics.
- Previous experience of mass vaccination campaigns and solid knowledge of cold chain management.
- Previous experience of supporting first phase self- sufficient primary health care programmes.
- Good knowledge of general logistics and willingness to multitask.
- Strong communicator and team member.
- Fluent written and spoken English.
- Demonstrated flexibility and ability to deploy to overseas locations at very short notice
- Ability to work in and maintain a positive team dynamic in insecure environments
- Demonstrated ability to work in a multi-cultural environment, and establish harmonious and effective working relationships both within and outside the organization
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook)
Desirable
- Previous experience of cholera response or disease outbreak response.
- Qualified in IATA Dangerous Goods
- Proficiency in a 2nd language such as French, Spanish or Arabic
- Previous experience of training and working with national teams on emergency preparedness.
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