Health facilities, services people's lifeline

HEALTH facilities and services are a community's lifeline, particularly in times of emergencies and disasters when special attention must be given to ensure the physical and functional integrity of hospitals and health facilities.

Director of health emergency management staff at the Philippine's Department of Health, Carmencita A Banatin said this during the launching of the World Health Day at the Health Promotion Centre in Berakas yesterday.

Themed "Save Lives. Make Hospitals Safe for Emergencies", this year's World Health Day emphasises on the importance of having safe health infrastructure preparations that is capable to the needs of many during the occurrence of natural disasters.

"This is about more than just protecting buildings. It is about preparing our health facilities and the health workforce to cope with emergency situations so as not to disrupt the delivery of health care and services in the event of either an emergency or disaster," added the director, who is also temporary advisor of the World Health Organisation.

Hospitals and professional health personnel represent the frontliners in providing treatment services, care and also prevention of disease outbreak during times of emergency and disasters, said Director-General of Medical Services Dr Hjh Norlila Dato Paduka Hj Abd Jalil during yesterday's launch.

"The Ministry of Health has been taking lessons from the recent flash floods and landslides that occurred recently in Brunei Darussalam which has indirectly evaluated the effectiveness of our course of action on every levels," she said.

Here, the director-general explained that the success and effectiveness of such plans depend not only on health officers and facilities but also other agencies including the Natural Disaster Management Centre, Brunei Shell Petroleum Sdn Bhd, Royal Brunei Armed Forces and the Royal Brunei Police Force.

A "National Major Medical Emergency Manual for Hospitals", which outlines the procedures and guide-lines to be followed by the relevant authorities during times of emergencies, was also introduced during the launching.

Launching the event as guest of honour was Minister of Health Pehin Orang Kaya Indera Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Hj Suyoi Hj Osman.

The minister also handed out the "National Major Medical Emergency Manual for Hospitals" to representa-tives of health facilities and institutes prior to touring the exhibits set up on the day, which included themes like services and hospital pre-paredness, response and relief, human resource, safety infrastructure and occupational health and partners in disaster management.

Workshops related to the theme have also been scheduled to be held throughout the year.

This year, World Health Day will focus on the safety of health facilities and the readiness of health wor-kers to treat those affected by emergencies such as treating injuries, preventing illnesses and caring for people's health needs.

First celebrated in 1950, World Health Day was originally organised to create awareness of a specific health theme to highlight a priority area of concern for the World Health Organisation.

In 2008, a total of 321 na-tural disasters resulted in 235,816 casualties, a death toll that was almost four times higher than the average annual total for the seven previous years.

Majority of this increase was specifically due to Cyclone Nargis, which left some 138,366 people dead or missing and the earthquake in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, which killed 87,476 people.