Hospitals Safe from Disasters
From HFA-PEDIA
The World Disaster Reduction Campaign 2008-2009: 'Hospitals Safe from Disasters' is a global campaign launched in Davos, Switzerland on 25 January, by the secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) and the World Health Organization (WHO), with support from the World Bank.
Other ISDR system partners involved include UNDP, WMO, UNEP, UNESCO, UNICEF, FAO, ILO, WFP, IFRC and the various ISDR networks of NGOs, private sector, academic institutions, parliamentarians and local authorities. At the national level, the main responsibilities belong to the national platforms for disaster risk reduction (as the focal points for the Hyogo Framework for Action) and the Ministries of Health.
The campaign focuses on structural safety of hospitals and health facilities, on keeping health facilities functioning during and after disasters, and on making sure health workers are prepared for natural hazards striking.
Hospitals Safe from Disasters Campaign Website: http://www.safehospitals.info/
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Campaign Objectives
The World Disaster Reduction Campaign on Hospitals Safe from Disasters aims to raise awareness and effect change that will:
- Protect the lives of patients and health workers by ensuring the structural resilience of health facilities;
- Make sure health facilities and health services are able to function in the aftermath of emergencies and disasters, when they are most needed; and
- Improve the risk reduction capacity of health workers and institutions, including emergency management.
Essentials for making health facilities safer
- Develop and implement national policies and programmes to make health facilities safe in emergencies.
- Select a safe site for the health facility.
- Design and construct safe health facilities.
- Assess the safety of existing health facilities.
- Protect health workers, equipment, medicines and supplies.
- Ensure that health facilities receive essential services.
- Develop partnerships between health facilities and the community.
- Develop an emergency risk management programme for individual health facilities.
- Develop an emergency response plan for each health facility.
- Test and update response plans with drills and exercises.
- Train the health workers to respond to emergencies.
- Evaluate and learn lessons from past emergencies and disasters.
Source: WHO
Related information and documents
- World Health Organization (WHO), 2009; Regional health forum – volume 13, number 1, 2009: special issue, world health day 2009
- The first five articles in this edition are based on the theme of World Health Day 2009: Health Facilities in Emergencies. The articles address various issues such as: methodologies for assessing structural and non-structural vulnerability of health facilities; community involvement and multi-stakeholder participation; health workforce preparedness; and the critical role of primary health care in disaster risk reduction. The last article elaborates the link between disaster risk reduction and primary health care. It discusses the impact that disasters and emergencies have on the health systems. It also provides examples to show that investments made in primary health care help provide better response and thereby protect the health of people during disasters.
- World Health Organization (WHO); July 16, 2008
