Are our hospitals resilient during disasters? Policy implications from an evidence-based assessment of hospital disaster resilience in Aceh

This publication considers how existing public policies have largely focused on service delivery capacity, while comparatively less attention has been given to ensuring that hospitals remain resilient and fully functional during periods of crisis. In disaster situations, hospitals are confronted not only with surging service demands but also with systemic challenges across interconnected domains, including information and technology, training and research, governance, workforce, financing, infrastructure, service, and business continuity. Aceh presents a strategic opportunity to serve as a national reference for advancing hospital resilience. The 2004 tsunami exposed fundamental weaknesses in health system preparedness for large-scale emergencies. Despite this, the institutionalization of these lessons into integrated and forward-looking hospital resilience policies has progressed unevenly. More recently, the mud flood in November 2025 reaffirmed the vulnerability of hospital operations to systemic disruptions and highlighted persistent gaps in preparedness. These experiences reinforce the urgency of national policies that explicitly position hospital resilience as a core element of public protection in an era of increasingly complex and climate-related disasters.