Health officials in the Philippines, one of
the most disaster-prone countries worldwide, are launching a nationwide study
to determine whether medical facilities can function during an emergency.
Officials
are using a checklist of indicators to assess structural, non-structural, and
functional elements of health structures.
“We
started this program in 2008-2009 by developing assessment tools and then
evaluating 25 hospitals in Metro Manila and National Capital region,” said
Carmencita Banatin, director of the Health Emergency Management Staff
(HEMS-DOH), the Department of Health office spearheading the initiative.
As the
hub of the country’s commerce and business, some 12 million people live in
metropolitan Manila alone.
Banatin
said the initial evaluation in 2009 was an “eye-opener” for some hospitals that
realized making hospitals safe from disasters did not necessarily require a lot
of capital.
“Tying
oxygen tanks to walls to make sure they don’t hurt people in the event of an
earthquake, moving critical structures from the basement or first floor of a
hospital to higher floors to protect them from floods, were just some of the
simple and easy to implement solutions identified,” said Banatin.
Bolstering
a building to withstand disaster, if done from the planning stages
pre-construction, adds only four percent to total costs, experts estimate.
“Now,
we are getting ready to assess the more than 2,000 hospitals in Luzon, Visayas,
and Mindanao,” said Banatin, referring to three of the country’s main islands.
The nationwide study is scheduled for completion by 2015.
According
to the most recent government data from 2007, there are 1,578 hospitals
nationwide, of which 617 are government hospitals.
Strengthening structures
Last
December, Typhoon Washi caught officials unprepared when massive flash floods
swept through the southern island of Mindanao. More than one million people
were affected in the hardest-hit cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.
“Even
if the hospital was prepared structurally and all that, we were still caught
flat-footed… especially since the rains came during the night,” Enrique Saab,
head of Northern Mindanao Medical Center’s emergency room in Cagayan de Oro,
told IRIN in January shortly after the typhoon hit.
“We
have bomb drills and earthquake drills, but not flood drills because we are not
known to be a flood-prone area,” he added.
Banatin
said the Health Department was ill-equipped to judge whether or not a health
facility was in a disaster-prone zone.
Apart
from ensuring hospital safety, the Health Department, NGOs, and local
organizations are working to improve the referral system to allow hospitals to
deal with patient surges post-disaster.
“Strengthening
a referral network will aid in faster response time. Hospitals nearest those in
the disaster-hit area can be alerted so that they can lend assistance and manpower
or bring in supplies,” Bu Castro, president of the Philippine Hospital
Association (PHA), told IRIN.
Some of
the most oft-overlooked elements become crucial in an emergency, he added.
“In the
event of earthquakes where roads are torn up or not passable, how do you even
get to the hospital? Alternative routes need to be mapped out. Where do
healthcare workers get access to a map like that?”
According
to the Belgium-based Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
(CRED), the Philippines is one of the most natural disaster-prone areas in the
world, with some 33 incidents in 2010-11 leading to an estimated 1,500 deaths.
Typhoon
Pedring alone affected more than three million people and caused US$13.6
million in damage to 63 health facilities last September, according to the
government’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Recently,
the government released $178 million to its “calamity fund,” a 50 percent
increase over the previous year’s budget.
Of this
fund, $115 million will go on repairing and reconstruction of permanent
structures, while $63 million will be used for disaster aid and relief to
stricken areas.
AsianScientist
Source:
IRIN
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