Natural and other disasters that result in a large number of suddenly ill people represent a new dimension of complex crises that are becoming a constant in our everyday lives. For successful crisis response management, knowledge of crisis management and leadership is crucial. Public healthcare institutions, as the carriers of healthcare in the country, become key actors of crisis management and leadership and crisis response coordination in the field of health care. In the Republic of Slovenia, they are organized at three levels: primary, secondary and tertiary level. The leading ministry is the Ministry of Health, which is the national and international link with the public healthcare services at lower levels and the structures of the civil protection and other crisis response entities. In crisis situations, public health services enter into coordination with the appropriate level of civil protection, which represents another crisis management and leadership player. In the non-crisis period, the public health services are the consultative body in planning and updating disaster plans. They are also obliged to check these at least once a year in the form of various types of disaster exercises. Since crisis management and leadership is not a core activity of the public health services, they face numerous challenges in planning and establishing crisis management and leadership within the public health services and in managing crises and disaster response. In order for crisis management and leadership within the public health services to be as effective as possible, much more will need to be done at the system level so that the public health services can become sovereign in all phases of crisis management and leadership and non-crisis situations and to establish a strategy that will fill the gap in the lack of professional staff.
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