Should the Indonesian government assist in making healthcare structures safe?”
When the Indian Ocean tsunami struck Aceh on 26 December 2004, it left about 170,000 dead and thousands more injured. But along with the houses and bridges washed away by the massive swell, more than half the 240 hospitals and health facilities were destroyed or badly damaged and 700 of the province’s 9,800 health workers dead or missing, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Indonesia. As a result, more than 20,000 patients had to wait up to 10 days before being admitted to a hospital. “These damaged facilities lost their capacity to protect and cater to the needy during those emergency periods as health facilities and health professionals too became victims of the disaster,” said Subhash R Salunke, country representative for the world health body in Indonesia, at a seminar in Jakarta on making hospitals safe in emergencies, the global theme of 2009 World Health Day on 7 April. “The tragedy of a major emergency or disaster is compounded when health facilities fail,” WHO
