The continual functioning of hospitals depends on a range of factors including the safety of the buildings, along with critical systems, equipment, and the availability of supplies. The “Safe Hospital Initiative” is a priority within the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction which was agreed upon by 186 counties in March 2015.
The initiative has enabled the World Health Organization (WHO)/Europe to assist the Ministry of Health in Uzbekistan www.uro.who.int/en/countries/Uzbekistan to train national experts with information from the Hospital Safety Index (2nd edition) to help assess the safety and preparedness of hospitals to enable them to remain operational in emergencies and disasters.
To enable capacity-building for technical experts, a WHO expert in preparedness and response between June 29 and July 3, 2015, trained 13 national experts on how to apply the “Hospital Safety Index” to the hospital’s needs.
The experts included civil engineers with experience in hospital construction, engineers and technicians familiar with hospital systems, medical technicians who maintain diagnostic equipment, and medical doctors providing day-to-day care.
The experts visited three hospitals including the City Emergency Hospital, the Oblast Multi-Functional Hospital, and the Republican Neurosurgical Hospital in Tashkent where they used the “Hospital Safety Index” as a tool to gather information on the hospitals’ strengths and weaknesses. The plan also identifies ways in which emergency and disaster management capacities of the hospitals can be improved.
As a result, three reports with recommendations were submitted to Dr. Saidaliev at the Ministry of Health. Many of the recommendations suggested were low cost and could easily be implemented within the hospitals’ budgets.
Recognizing that more is required to enforce emergency preparedness in hospitals in his country, Dr. Saidaliev invited WHO to conduct more training in emergency preparedness and to assist in updating the country’s emergency preparedness plans.
In a move to assist the City Emergency Hospital, WHO provided a generator to help the hospital since no alternative electricity source was currently available to ensure uninterrupted functioning of the operating theaters and the intensive care unit in the event of power cuts.