A new earthquake safety campaign is launched in India, helmed by Swiss Re, international nonprofit, GeoHazards International (GHI), and a New Delhi-based nonprofit, GeoHazards Society (GHS). The multi-year campaign seeks to improve hospital safety during earthquakes.

The three organisations Swiss Re, GHI and GHS seek to assist Indian hospitals mitigate their earthquake risks through this corporate responsibility programme, with a detailed but easy-to-use manual, "Reducing Earthquake Risk in Hospitals from Equipment, Contents, Architectural Elements and Building Utility Systems", to help hospitals take steps to keep functioning and saving lives after an earthquake.

 

Mr Dhananjay Date, Managing Director of Swiss Re Services India Private Limited, said,  "The recent tragic earthquakes in Chile and Haiti are adding urgent alarm calls for pre-disaster risk mitigation. Recognising their crucial role in post-disaster relief work, India's hospital sector needs to get better prepared to cope with major earthquake disasters."

 

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), India's highest authority on disaster management, was involved in the development of the manual, which was released nationally by Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, at an event at NDMA in Delhi.  

The manual provides guidelines on how to reduce earthquake-related damage and losses to hospitals' medical equipment and supplies, contents, architectural elements and building utility systems. Damage to these items can mean stoppage of essential medical services or even cause deaths and injuries even when the building structure remains essentially undamaged.

The hospital earthquake safety manual can be downloaded free of charge from the GHI website at http://www.geohaz.org/hospitalsafetymanual . Hospitals can also request free hard copies by contacting GHS, New Delhi.