Emergency and humanitarian action
Regional Training Course on Safe Hospitals
Tropicana Apartment Hotel, Manila, Philippines, 2 - 4 February 2009
MANILA, 4 February 2009 – The World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WHO-WPRO) through its Emergency and Humanitarian Action unit recently conducted a consultative meeting to develop and package a Regional Training Course on Safe Hospitals.
The meeting was held in Manila last 2-4 February 2009 in partnership with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education-Tropical Medicine and Public Health Network (SEAMEO-TROPMED) with the support of the Humanitarian Aid department of the European Commission (ECHO).
Participants included content specialists, a curriculum designer, a graphic designer and professionals involved in safe hospitals and hospital preparedness programmes. These experts represented the University of the Philippines National Teachers Training Center, Department of Health (DOH) Health Emergency Management System (DOH-HEMS) and Manila Doctors Hospital.
The new course was adapted from the existing WHO training modules offered at the international and national levels. The participants reviewed the training courses on Mass Casualty Management and Hospital Preparedness and Public Health and Emergency Management in Asia and Pacific (PHEMAP) and developed a three-day course entitled “Training on Safe Hospitals”.
This course will be handed down to Ministries of Health of Member States as part of capacity development for policymakers, hospital managers and staff involved in hospital disaster preparedness and response.
The modules in the new course include safe hospitals concepts; assessment of structural, non-structural, and functional components of hospitals; and action planning.
The participants of this training course will be expected to show appreciation of the importance of policy and administrative support in ensuring safe hospitals, prioritize gaps in ensuring safe hospitals, prepare an action plan for identified gaps, and advocate for safe hospitals in their respective settings.
The development of this training course is a part of a series of activities implemented by WHO in fulfilling its commitment to support the 2008-2009 World Campaign on Hospitals Safe from Disasters.
Keywords:
training, safe hospitals, disaster preparedness