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Wednesday, Apr 16, 2008
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WHO campaign to keep hospitals immune to disasters

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The World Health Organisation on Tuesday launched the World Disaster Reduction Campaign on Hospitals Safe from Disasters for Southeast Asia.

The campaign, aimed at preventing damage during natural calamities that leaves millions without access to healthcare, is being implemented by the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and the World Bank.

The WHO is working with countries to ensure that hospitals are disaster-resilient and that the health workforce continues providing care when disasters strike. Functional collapse, not structural damage, is the usual reason for hospitals being put out of service during emergencies.

Not expensive

However, the good news is that making new hospitals and health facilities safe is not costly. Incorporating mitigation measures into the design and construction of a new hospital is estimated to cost less than four per cent of the total initial investment.

The WHO Southeast Asia Regional Office brought experts, professionals and practitioners for a two-day regional consultation, begun here on Tuesday, to increase awareness of the issue. The experts will also identify opportunities to strengthen risk reduction and preparedness in health facilities during and beyond the two-year campaign.

Tsunami lessons

The December 26, 2004 earthquake and tsunami were a watershed event. For, never before had one single event affected such a large number of countries so severely. The countries in the region learnt important lessons and realised that there were gaps in emergency preparedness and response that needed to be addressed.

Apart from natural disasters, civil conflicts have made it difficult for health facilities to cope with a sudden influx of injured people. The problem usually is not the physical or structural integrity of a hospital or clinic, but one of understaffing and lack of access to supplies and essential utilities.

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