Emergency and humanitarian action
Regional Training Course on Safe Hospitals in Emergencies and Disasters
Cebu City, Philippines, 14 - 16 October 2009
The World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WHO/WPRO) convened the Regional Training on Safe Hospitals in Emergencies and Disasters on 14-16 October 2009 in Cebu City, Philippines.
The course was held in partnership with Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization – Tropical Medicine and Public Health Network (SEAMEO-TROPMED) through the support of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO). The course was organized to provide health and health-related professionals involved in health emergency management with deep understanding of the concepts, principles, and strategies in ensuring the safety of hospitals and health facilities during disasters.
The damages and floods brought about by the recent typhoon Ketsana in the Philippines, Viet Nam, Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic have shown that health facilities are not spared. Ensuring safety and continued services in hospitals in times of disasters requires a long term and programmatic approach and partnership between sectors.
The participants were policy makers and planning teams from hospitals and Ministries of Health in different countries including Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Mongolia, the Philippines and Viet Nam.
The course was divided into three modules which tackled disaster risk management and safe hospital concepts, safe hospital assessment and action planning. The participants used the regional manual on Safe Hospitals in Emergencies and Disasters to review the safety of their hospitals vis-à-vis the natural hazards in their respective countries.
“The major achievement of the training course is that hospital administrators from these countries developed a full grasp of the concept and have understood the value of incorporating disaster risk reduction and hospital preparedness in their planning,” explained Dr Ma. Sandra Tempongko from SEAMEO-TROPMED.
The participants shared experiences from different situations that included floods, typhoons, fires, and earthquakes. They emphasized that there are always strategies and actions that can be done that do not require huge amount of funds and human capacity.
Regional activities for safe hospitals in disasters are part of the two-year World Disaster Reduction Campaign. This year, the regional office has developed tools for assessment of health facilities and has supported hospital assessment in the Philippines and Viet Nam. Advocacy efforts were maximized through the World Health Day in 14 April 2009 and the International Day for Disaster Reduction in 14 October 2009.
“Everyone must take advantage of opportunities in order to improve preparedness in health facilities,” noted Dr Art Pesigan from the Emergency and Humanitarian Action of WHO/WPRO. “It is vital to take the cause forward to policy-makers in order to ensure that initiatives for preparedness and safety of health facilities in emergencies applied.”