Securing hospitals

PANAMA. In the next few weeks, the Health Ministry will measure the security index of hospitals if they were to confront disasters.

Rosario Turner, Health Minister, said the evaluation will start in three hospitals: one in Veraguas, one in Chiriqui, and Saint Thomas in Panama. Once this first phase of the project is finished, it will be applied in the rest of the world.

Fift six people have already been trained to evaluate how prepared hospitals are to guarantee the safety ofpatients in the case of a mahor disaster such as a flood, or earthquake.

According to Turner, Panama was in the forefront last year when the World Health Organization led a campaign to promote patient safety.

She said that signs have been put up in all hospitals, which are part of plans in case of emergencies, and where practice drills have taken place.

She added that during the recent floods in Bocas del Toro, the hospital continued working and the health workers’ quick response was able to save lives, as oppose to the 1991 quake when its main hospital collapsed.