Philippines: Hospital learns lessons from Ketsana storm

Manila - Nervous young boys carrying their surgical slips squat on the floor of Cainta municipal hospital, east of the capital, waiting for their turn on the operating bed during a mass circumcision programme.

With its clean, well-lit surroundings and orderly patient administration, it is difficult to imagine that the four-storey building was completely overwhelmed when tropical storm Ketsana hit Manila on 26 September 2009.

Over 80 percent of the capital was flooded. A week later Typhoon Parma struck the northern part of Luzon island, and a third typhoon, Mirinae, came in October. All in all, over 1,000 people were killed and 10 million affected.

The worst flooding in decades swamped Cainta town's 27 community health centres, forcing many to seek shelter in schools, while others crammed into the hospital for medical help as floods swept cars and entire houses away.

The hospital itself was spared, but many of its staff were stranded in their homes, or trapped inside the structure without power, and fast dwindling food and medical supplies.

"Many of our 94 doctors themselves were victims. We didn’t have electricity, but tried to cope the best we could,” said hospital chief Antonio Cadano.

“Ketsana has taught us a valuable lesson in stockpiling medicines, preparing contingency measures and putting in place crucial mechanisms,” he said.

The UN earlier this month launched a worldwide campaign targeting unsafe schools and hospitals, where it says the most vulnerable people - and highest death tolls - can be found in times of disaster.

The UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said a total of 42 primary and secondary schools were flooded in Manila last year, while 30 private and public hospitals and 100 health centres were damaged.

Valuable lessons

Renaud Meyer, country director for the UN Development Programme in the Philippines, said the typhoons last year exposed vulnerabilities in the country, but at the same time taught valuable lessons.

“Events like Parma and Ketsana have significantly raised awareness on these gaps like never before and are changing mindsets,” Meyer told IRIN. “A major indicator is more demand from local government units, for example, [for] appropriate disaster risk reduction/climate change adaptation options.”

The government has earmarked about 852 million pesos (US$19.3 million) for repairs to 19 major state hospitals and thousands of primary school classrooms damaged by the floods, according to the government’s national reconstruction commission.

Reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts would have to focus on making structures stronger in withstanding natural disasters, said Glenn Rabonza, chief of Manila’s Office of Civil Defence.

“There is an ongoing effort now to make critical infrastructures risk and disaster free, as part of our commitment to the UN’s campaign to make schools and hospitals safe,” Rabonza told IRIN.

“We have also asked line agencies to make emergency drills a regular fixture in all government buildings, while schools are told to stock up on emergency kits,” he said.

'Disaster-proof'

At Cainta Municipal Hospital, power generators were bought for the facility, and a disaster-preparedness committee was formed shortly after Ketsana hit.

All of the hospital’s 600 staff, from the maintenance crew to the medical workers, were taught to respond quickly to disasters. Communication facilities were also improved, with a radio relay tower erected in case telephone signals go down.

“We are aiming to make the hospital disaster proof, if possible,” said Cadano, whose home in Marikina District, near Cainta, was also damaged by last year’s floods.

Cathy Rodriguez, 75, a volunteer midwife at the hospital, said among the most vulnerable last year were pregnant mothers, many of whom had to give birth in dirty and overcrowded evacuation centres.

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