On World Health Day 2009, the World Health Organization is focusing on the safety of health facilities which are most needed during emergencies. The main slogan of the Day 2009 is “Save Lives, Make Hospitals Safe in Emergencies” which reflects the necessity of keeping health facilities safe and functional during and after emergencies. We need to ensure that health facilities and services are able to function in the aftermath of emergencies and disasters, protect the lives of patients, serve the affected population and keep health workers safe.
On this occasion Dr Duangvadee Sungkhobol, World Health Representative to Bangladesh said, the theme of the World Health Day 2009 underscores the need to develop joint plan of action and response strategies so that health facilities are made more efficient, safer and capable of dealing with emergency health situations at all times in order to mitigate the sufferings of the population.
We all are aware that Bangladesh is a disaster-prone country because of its geo- topographical character and its location on a deltaic plain. Keeping the health facilities fully functional and operationally efficient at all times is an uphill challenge for Bangladesh. There have been recent instances of emergency situations, such as the super-cyclone SIDR, floods, landslides, fire and tornadoes, and there have been reports of massive damage to the nation’s health infrastructure as well as services, in addition to deaths and injury, and sudden disease outbreaks. Given this scenario, WHO has attached high priority to the prompt provision of technical support to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for better case management and improving response capacities in emergencies through WHO collaborative programme with the Government.
The South-East Asia Region is no stranger to disasters. More than half a million people in the Region lost their lives to natural disasters between 1996 and 2005. This was nearly 58% of the world’s total deaths due to natural disasters during the same period. These events also profoundly affected health facilities and the communities that depend on them. In Aceh, Indonesia, 61% of health facilities were damaged or completely destroyed by the 2004 tsunami. More recently, cyclone Nargis in Myanmar destroyed 57% of public health facilities in the affected areas. The damage to thousands of health facilities in the 2001 Gujarat earthquake in India cost around $US 60 million to repair
Member States in the Region have taken important steps to make health facilities safer and thereby save lives. “The Twelve Benchmarks for Emergency Preparedness” created by WHO and its Member States are a complete set of standards and checklists for making new and existing health facilities able to withstand disasters. WHO has also developed an assessment tool to measure how safe a hospital is, the Hospitals Safety Index.
On this World Health Day, WHO is supporting Member States in their efforts to save lives by making health facilities safe in emergencies.