Making health facilities safe in emergencies and disasters

In emergencies, disasters and other crises, the lives and well-being of the affected population must always be protected, particularly in the minutes and hours immediately following impact or exposure as time is of the essence in saving lives. The ability of health services to be delivered by critical infrastructure such as health facilities without interruption in these situations is a matter of life and death. It is one of the targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, that is, “to substantially reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services, among them health and educational facilities, including through developing their resilience by 2030” (Target D).

For a safe health facility to remain intact, accessible and functioning at maximum capacity before, during and immediately following an emergency or disaster, it relies on key factors, as follows:

• health infrastructure that can resist exposures and forces from all types of hazards (e.g., retrofitted towards disaster risk reduction);
• medicine and medical equipment that are essential, accessible and protected from damage from all hazards (including climate change impacts);
• community infrastructure and critical services (such as water, food, electricity and medical supplies) that are available to support the delivery of health services; and
• health personnel who can provide medical assistance in safe and secure settings where and when they are most needed.

 WHO’s safe health facilities’ programme supports Member States to:

• develop national policies and regulations on making health facilities safe from disasters;
• protect the lives of the occupants of a health facility;
• protect the economic investment as well as the functionality of both new and existing health facilities and those identified as priorities (e.g., hub hospital) within the health services network;
• compile, organize and monitor the implementation of policies as well as national and international regulations on safe health facilities; and
• make health facilities safe, energy-efficient and resilient to future risks, including climate change.

The Hospital Safety Index, developed by WHO is a tool used by health authorities and multidisciplinary partners to gauge the probability that a health facility will continue to be safe and operational in emergency situations. The tool includes evaluation forms, a guide for evaluators and a safety index calculator.