DAK seeks earthquake safety audit of hospitals in Kashmir

Srinagar, Feb 8: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Wednesday has sought earthquake safety audit of all the hospitals in the valley.
“Structural audit of hospitals should be done immediately to ensure they are resilient to quakes,” said DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan.
“Recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria is a wakeup call for Kashmir which is vulnerable to similarly powerful seismic events,’’ he said.
Dr Hassan said hospitals play an important role in saving lives during an earthquake. They provide immediate medical succor in the form of emergency medical care.
“It is essential that these crucial life-saving assets remain functional at a time when they are needed most,” he said.
The DAK President said there is an urgent need to assess the structural stability of heath care institutions.
“We need to identify the gaps and fill them on priority,” he said adding “corrective measures such as strengthening and retrofitting of these lifeline buildings, if needed should be done on urgent basis.”
Dr Nisar said hospitals in Kashmir need to increase their surge capacity to cope with increased number of patients in case of a disaster like earthquake.
They need to augment infrastructure, staff, space and supplies to manage sudden influx of an unexpected patient load during the disaster.
“Hospitals should have designated disaster wards and reserved staff in case of large scale disaster,” he said.
General Secretary DAK Dr Arshad Ali said hospital staff should undergo disaster management training and periodic drills to test the response capabilities to disaster.
“Every hospital should have a disaster management committee to make a disaster plan for the hospital and ensure its implementation when needed,” he said.