Are Government operated hospitals running in our city are equipped to prevent any disaster? The question might be tricky, but we need to retrospect on this important issue.

A major fire that took place this month at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences teaching block has charred the virology and microbiology department destroying medical reports, and sophisticated equipment’s. This has put a bigger question mark on the safety parameters of hospitals.

The National Disaster Management Act (NDMA, India), 2005 has made it mandatory for all the hospitals in India to have a disaster management contingency plan. The components of a disaster response cycle deal with response, rescue, recovery, mitigation, risk reduction, prevention and preparedness of the hospital.

Caritas India with the support of District Disaster Management Authority conducted a Hospital Disaster Management workshop for the Medical, Paramedical, Nursing staff, Maintenance Department staff, Administrative Staff of Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital, Jahangirpuri in Delhi on August 22-23, 2019.

This initiative was taken under the Caritas India’s Urban Disaster Risk Reduction programme operational in Geeta Colony, Shastri Park, and Bhalswa JJ Cluster slum areas. The project provides a platform to work with community leaders, policymakers, disaster management authority, and other stakeholders to reduce Urban disaster risks.

The Disaster Management Workshop was organized to orient and sensitize the hospital staff about types of disaster, its intensity, impact, concept, and issues involved in hospital preparedness to deal with the disaster. And the follow-up of the programme will include the preparation of a disaster management plan for the hospital, its evacuation plan and mock drills.

The resource persons, Dr. Abhijeet Sangma from Christian medical association of India and Mr. Shem Raomai from Emmanuel Hospital Association exchanged thoughts/ideas, observation and clarified queries of the hospital staff. They shared about the ‘Disaster management plan/cycle’, its components such as Preparedness, Prevention, Mitigation, Response & Recovery. Dr. Abhijeet spoke about the relevance of disaster management and Institutional mechanism in India. He shared about the Impact of disaster in hospitals and its multipronged effects on people i.e. mental trauma, physiological trauma, financial loss, material loss, life loss. Emphasising the importance of planning with the participants, he rephrased the idiom “Failing to prepare is preparing to Fail”.

Mr. Shem Raomai shared about the priorities during an emergency, the need for an emergency plan, the importance of hospital disaster management plan and roles of Hospital in disaster/mass casualty incident (MCI). He also talked about the myths and realities related to hospital disaster management. He further shared the process of hospital disaster preparedness plan.

Participants of the workshop were asked to list down the threat and danger in a city (Delhi) and prioritise them which relates to hospital in terms of its frequency, intensity, and effect. Further, asked whether the hospital is capable enough or capacitate enough to cope up with such disaster.

Some suggestion related to hospital physical layout map for the disaster, hospital disaster management plan, a regular check of fire extinguisher and mock drill, necessary linkages with various stakeholders were shared with the participants. He emphasised on developing basic know-how of staff on CPR, first aid, use of fire extinguisher, developing incident command Centre and quick response team, etc. to avert any risk of disasters.

Caritas India will work on developing a safe hospital resilience model which can be replicated in other hospitals.