Asia > Southern Asia > Nepal > Emergency preparedness pays off as Kathmandu hospitals respond to earthquakes: WHO

Nepal: Emergency preparedness pays off as Kathmandu hospitals respond to earthquakes: WHO

2015/05/14

The WHO says the earthquakes and continuing aftershocks in Nepal have highlighted the importance of efforts the UN body and the Nepalese Health and People Ministry have had in place for additional than a decade to ensure key hospitals, health facilities and health workers would be ready and able to function well in an emergency or natural disaster.

WHO says the initial earthquake on April 25 measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale and the second quake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale on Tuesday failed to disrupt services at Kathmandu’s major public hospitals, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH), Patan Hospital, Civil Service Hospital, Birendra Army Hospital and the trauma center at Bir Hospital. As of today, additional than 8,200 people are reported to have been killed in the earthquakes and over 19,000 injured.

In Nepal, hospital retrofitting, which involves everything from repairing cracks in walls to installing seismic belts and roof bracing, has been a core part of preparedness plans.

“Retrofitting meant that at the same time as the earthquakes struck the hospitals did not collapse,” WHO health response leader Roderico Ofrin said in a statement on Wednesday.

“It is clear that the investment in time and resources paid off,” he went on.

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