Disaster Risk Reduction in the Health Sector

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• Disaster Risk Reduction in the Health Sector

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Some traditional risks associated with dissters
and emergencies

• Vector borne disease
• Epidemics
• Mental health
• Management of cadavers
• Lack of information for decision making

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Are our Hospitals and Health Facilities Safe?

• Major disasters have left thousands of persons
  without access to health care.
• In most cases, this is because health facilities
  could not function.

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Impact on Health

• Increased risk of death or disability, especially
  among the sick and injured.
• Health personnel left without working
  infrastructure.
• Increased casualties, need for medical care and
  laboratory support, including loss of lives
  indirectly due to the disruption of services.

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Social and Economic Impact

• Public sense of security health services are the
  backbone of lifesaving efforts, and must be
  safeguarded.
• Between 1981-1996, direct losses due to damage to
  health infrastructure was estimated at US 3.12
  billion (ECLAC).

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A problem that can be solved...

• New hospitals are clearly identifiable at the
  local, national and international levels.
• It is no more costly to build a safe hospital
  than it is to build a hospital vulnerable to
  disasters.
• The cost of protection is negligible when
  included in the earliest phase of design. The
  later in the process, the more expensive.

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Health Workshop on Disaster Risk
ReductionWednesday, June 6 at 230 pm

• Status and trends in disaster risk reduction in
  the health sector at global level
• Case studies on why health facilities fail and
  what is being done
• Grenada
• Nepal
• Ensuring that hospitals can remain functional
• Philippines
• A low-cost, high impact tool to identify and
  reduce risk in health facilities the Hospital
  Safety Index
• Introduction to the global ISDR/WHO Campaign on
  Safe Hospitals (2008-09)

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The good news

• Well-built or retrofitted hospitals have remained
  functional following disasters.
• The health sector has solid examples and
  accumulated experience in improving safety of
  health infrastructure.
• Today, the knowledge exists to assess
  vulnerability and to reduce risk in health
  facilities.