Making Hospitals Safe from Disasters
The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters emphasized the importance of “making hospitals safe from disasters” as a key activity to reduce underlying disaster risk factors by ensuring that all new hospitals are built with a level of resilience that strengthens their capacity to remain functional in disaster situations and implement mitigation measures to reinforce existing health facilities, particularly those providing primary health care (Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015).
The World Health Organization collaborated with the secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, on the 2008-2009 World Disaster Reduction Campaign on Hospitals Safe from Disasters, to raise awareness in making hospitals safe from disasters. By ensuring the structural resilience of health facilities, the lives of patients and health workers will be protected. It will also enable health facilities and services to function in the aftermath of emergencies and disasters, when they are most needed, and improve the emergency management capacity of health workers and institutions.
