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WHO / PAHO / IFRC / WMO
STORY: WHO / HOSPITAL SAFETY
TRT: 8.34
SOURCE: WHO / PAHO / IFRC / WMO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: RECENT / FILE
FILE – WHO – 2008, CHINA
1. Various shots, aftermath of 12 May 2008 earthquake, damage to a hospital.
FILE – WHO – 15 NOVEMBER 2008, SICHUAN PROVINCE, CHINA
2. Various shots, Dr Eric Laroche, WHO talking with survivors
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Eric Laroche, Assistant Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO), Head of Health Action in Crises:
"The future is about more and more natural disasters, everyone knows that, if you look at the number of natural disasters it is on the increase. So there will be more and more such cases. There will be not only earthquakes, but there will be floods and hurricanes, more and more. So I think we need to be more and more prepared.”
FILE – PAHO – 1980, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES
4. Wide shot, wind and heavy rain over a house
FILE – PAHO – NOVEMBER 2007, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
5. Aerial shot, from helicopter, people seeking help in a flood
FILE – PAHO – AUGUST 2007, PISCO, PERU
6. Wide shot, people walking toward camera after earthquake
FILE – WHO – JANUARY 2005, SRI LANKA
7. Pan right, health facilities destroyed after 2004 tsunami
PAHO – DATE AND LOCATION UNKNOWN
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Jean-Luc Poncelet, Area manager, Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief:
“After the disaster is the moment where you have the largest numbers of casualties, when you think about earthquake, when you think about mayor plane crash, when you think about those events, sudden events creating a large number of injuries, hospitals are absolutely critical.”
FILE – WHO – 2005, PAKISTAN
9. Various shots, health facilities, patient care, and damage in Muzaffarabad following the 8 Oct 2005 earthquake
FILE – PAHO – 1985, MEXICO CITY
10. Med shot, rescue workers at destroyed hospital pulling out a person
FILE – PAHO – AUGUST 2007, PISCO, PERU
11. Tilt down, hospital damaged by earthquake
WHO – 15 JANUARY 2009, WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mirta Roses Periago, Regional Director for World Health Organization (WHO) Regional office for the Americas:
"We have a region that is very vulnerable to disasters and we have lived through the years increasingly the experience of having our health facilities affected when we need them most."
FILE – PAHO – JANUARY 2009, COSTA RICA
13. Pan right, hospital in construction
14. Wide shot, power generator of a hospital
15. Med shot, safe deposit
16. Tilt down, hospital in construction
17. Med shot, hospital in construction
FILE – PAHO – DECEMBER 2007, PISCO, PERU
18. Wide shot, new hospital
FILE – PAHO – MARCH 2009, PANAMA CITY, PANAMA
19. Pan right, people at hospital waiting room
WHO – 12 JANUARY 2009, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Carissa Etienne, Assistant Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO), Health Systems and Services:
"To deliver an effective service we require not only a building, but we require health care workers that function.”
FILE – WHO – 1985, MEXICO
21. Various shots, aftermath of 19 Sept, 1985, Mexico earthquake
FILE – IFRC/WMO – DATE UNKNOWN, BANGLADESH
22. Various shots, disaster preparedness activities
23. Various shots, disaster simulations
24. Wide shot, building labelled cyclone shelter
FILE – WHO – RECENT, NEAR HARARE, ZIMBABWE
25. Various shots, nurse treating cholera patient during current outbreak
FILE – WHO – NOVEMBER 2008, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
26. Various shots, baby being treated at MSF cholera treatment centre in Kibati II internally displaced people's camp near Goma
FILE – WHO – 10 NOVEMBER 2008, GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Omar Khatib, Emergency and Humanitarian Action regional adviser for World Health Organization (WHO) Africa regional office:
"The problem is because of the war, so many years of war, the health system has also suffered, and the health system has been affected because of a lack of investment put into the health, but also because of the fact that these belligerents also target health institutions.”
FILE – WHO - NOVEMBER 2008, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
28. Various shots, lab testing for cholera in Goma.
29. Various shots, MSF worker with baby at cholera treatment centre in Kibati II internally displaced people's camp near Goma
WHO – 12 FEBRUARY 2009, LOCATON UNKNOWN
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Robin Coupland, adviser on armed violence and the effects of weapons for the International Committee of the Red Cross:
"One of the most important things is that health care workers recognize both their rights and responsibilities in armed conflict, but more important than that is that the parties to the conflict must recognize that all health facilities are protected under humanitarian law."
FILE – WHO – JANUARY 2009, GAZA
31. Various shots, damage to health facilities and ambulance during the Dec 08-Jan 09 emergency
32. Various shots, Nahed Al-Shawa, ambulance driver arriving at health facility
FILE – WHO – 2 JANUARY 2009, GAZA
33. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Nahed Al-Shawa, Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance paramedic:
“The situation is quite difficult and my children worry that I may leave home and not come back. It is clear that I may leave and I may not return. Naturally I say goodbye to my children. Some of them tell me 'Daddy, don't go to work.' The others say I should go because it is my humanitarian duty.”
FILE – PAHO - MARCH 2009, PANAMA CITY, PANAMA
34. Pan right, moving woman in a stretcher at hospital, Oncology Institute
FILE – PAHO - NOVEMBER 2007, SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
35. Med shot, people meeting and planning the recovery efforts
35. Med shot, public worker hugging a child
Almost one year ago, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in China’s Sichuan province killed at least 69,000 people, and damaged or destroyed more than 11,000 health facilities at a time when over 200,000 people needed emergency care.
This week, the World Heath Organization launched a campaign to safeguard hospitals and health workers so they can continue working during emergencies like earthquakes – the most deadly type of natural disaster.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Eric Laroche, Assistant Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO), Head of Health Action in Crises:
"The future is about more and more natural disasters, everyone knows that, if you look at the number of natural disasters it is on the increase. So there will be more and more such cases. There will be not only earthquakes, but there will be floods and hurricanes, more and more. So I think we need to be more and more prepared.”
There is also concern that frequent and stronger extreme weather events could have a devastating impact on health.
Last year, natural disasters alone killed more than 230,000 people, a death toll that was almost four times higher than the average annual total for 2000–2007.
Health facilities are often the first casualties of emergencies. Many health workers have been killed or wounded, making services unavailable to treat survivors.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Jean-Luc Poncelet, Area manager, Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief:
“After the disaster is the moment where you have the largest numbers of casualties, when you think about earthquake, when you think about major plane crash, when you think about those events, sudden events creating a large number of injuries, hospitals are absolutely critical.”
WHO says many measures, often low-cost, can be taken to make health facilities able to withstand emergencies, to ensure they can continue functioning in the wake of disaster.
Hospitals can be designed and built more safely to withstand earthquakes. Appropriate locations can be chosen to build new health facilities, like flood free zones, or away from coastal areas where cyclones hit or areas of high seismic activity.
WHO is urging governments and decision-makers around the world to take on board lessons learned from past disasters, especially in Latin America.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mirta Roses Periago, Regional Director for WHO's Regional office for the Americas:
"We have a region that is very vulnerable to disasters and we have lived through the years increasingly the experience of having our health facilities affected when we need them most."
According to WHO and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), building safe hospitals can have a minimal price tag if safety is factored in early in the design process. Even retrofitting existing facilities can be cost-effective when compared to the losses caused by a disaster.
But making sure hospital structures don’t collapse is only part of being prepared for emergencies.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Carissa Etienne, Assistant Director-General of WHO, Health Systems and Services:
"To deliver an effective service we require not only a building, but we require health care workers that function.”
WHO says health staff must be trained to respond to all kinds of emergencies, particularly mass casualty events.
Health facilities and other health providers need systems that can be activated when disaster strikes, so people – doctors and nurses, support and administrative staff, ambulance drivers – all know what to do when casualties start streaming in.
Natural disasters aren’t the only emergencies that can impact heavily on health facilities, they can also be “amplifiers" of disease outbreaks, which means that proper infection control practices must be in place to stop infectious diseases spreading between patients and staff.
Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak was exacerbated by a weakened health system where supply chains were dysfunctional, health staff unmotivated and health facilities woefully under-equipped.
The latest WHO statistics verified 162 outbreaks of infectious disease in 75 countries worldwide. More than a third of the outbreaks occurred in Africa.
Conflict can compound the situation, as was the case during the flare-up of fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province last year.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Omar Khatib, Emergency and Humanitarian Action regional adviser for WHO's Africa regional office:
"The problem is because of the war, so many years of war, the health system has also suffered, and the health system has been affected because of a lack of investment put into the health, but also because of the fact that these belligerents also target health institutions.”
WHO says combatants in conflicts must respect international humanitarian laws that ensure the neutrality of health facilities and staff.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Robin Coupland, adviser on armed violence and the effects of weapons for the International Committee of the Red Cross:
"One of the most important things is that health care workers recognize both their rights and responsibilities in armed conflict, but more important than that is that the parties to the conflict must recognize that all health facilities are protected under humanitarian law."
During the recent three-week Gaza Strip emergency, 16 health staff were killed and 25 injured while on duty, 15 hospitals and 41 primary health centres were damaged --- 29 ambulances were damaged or destroyed.
Ambulance driver Nahed Al-Shawa was keenly aware that he was risking his life doing his job while the conflict in Gaza was raging.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Nahed Al-Shawa, Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance paramedic:
“The situation is quite difficult and my children worry that I may leave home and not come back. It is clear that I may leave and I may not return. Naturally I say goodbye to my children. Some of them tell me 'Daddy, don't go to work.' The others say I should go because it is my humanitarian duty.”
In many countries, as much as 80 percent of the health budget is spent on hospitals.
Making hospitals safe in emergencies will protect this investment and allow health workers to provide life-saving care when most needed.
