POLICY BRIEF

The Importance of Standardization, Accreditation, and Classification of Disaster Medical Assistance Team

This policy brief is addressed to policy maker in National Agency for Disaster Management and Ministry of Health especially to Health Crisis Center

Introduction

Indonesia is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. It is scientifically explainable as Indonesia’s geography, geology, and hydrology are vulnerable to earthquake, tsunami, flood, and landslide. It is also Indonesia located at the convergence of Eurasia, Indo-Australia, and Pacific Plates. Indonesia has experienced many major natural disasters such as earthquake and tsunami in Aceh (2004), earthquake in Bantul Yogyakarta (2006), earthquake and tsunami in Pangandaran (2006), earthquake in Padang (2009), and Mount Merapi eruption (2010). When disaster happens, many health problems arise. In emergency situation, medical team is needed to provide health services and support to disaster victims. Disaster medical assistance team plays an essential role to save human lives during the emergency response periods.

Based on the past experiences, started from tsunami in Aceh 2004 untill the Mount Merapi eruption 2010, there were two things to be highlighted. First, is the quality of disaster medical team who assisted on disaster and second, is the system to cordinate and control the disaster medical assistance team. Until now, there is no system to control disaster medical assistance team. It can be seen that there is no guidelines to manage standard for competences of disaster medical assistance team.

Indonesia has experienced many major natural disasters. In emergency response phase, there were many medical teams from Indonesia and overseas that went to disaster-affected area. But until this time, there is no guideline to manage the medical team. In developed countries, they already have a guideline to manage the disaster medical team so that they can do it in effective and efficient way. The problem of management and professionalism of disaster medical team is vital because it affects to the results. Therefore this problem is highlighted at Pre-Conference 11^th Asia-Pacific Conference Emergency and Disaster Medicine, which held at Denpasar Bali, September 2012.

Context and The Importance of Problem

Indonesia is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. In an emergency situation, there were many disaster medical teams from Indonesia and overseas that went to area affected by disasters. There is no guideline to manage disaster medical assistance teams. Therefore, it needs a system to manage these problems:

1. There were many disaster assistance teams came to Indonesia, but it was not clear whether they have a permission or not. Thus, it is very important to register all the medical assistance teams and provide information on how many disaster medical teams are needed. Then, it is essential to provide quality control to disaster medical teams for both local and oversea teams.
2. Disaster medical teams who came to area affected by disaster was not clear whether they have competences or not. Sometimes this problem cause secondary effect after disaster such as infection. Therefore, it is essential to determine the qualification of disaster medical assistance
3. There isno minimum standard in giving medical assistance. Thus, it needs management system to coordinate disaster medical teams so that they can work in effective and efficient way. It is very important to build a system to manage this problem. Then it also needs an institution to carry out this work. It can be done independently or corporately with other institutions.

Policy Recommendation

To control and coordinate disaster medical assistance teams in Indonesia, the policy recommendations are given as follows:

1. Register all medical assistance teams for both local and international teams with one door policy so that the authority can monitor the activities of the medical teams. Besides, it can be determined on how many disaster teamsare needed in the field.
2. The government should provide guideline for disaster medical assistance teams, include minimum standard for health services, list of hospital specification, and medical logistic and non medical logistic that available in hospital during a disaster. This guideline is aimed to provide standard and practical guide for disaster medical assistance teams for both local and international teams in order to work effectively with minimum impact.
3. Legalization of institution and official of health institution, therefore they have a power to coordinate disaster medical assistance team. This health institution can be a part of national agency for disaster management that has authority to conduct feasibility test for medical teams.
4. It is essential to collect, compile and record medical doctor and medical specialist data that has an expertise in disaster field so that it will simplify coordination. It is also important to make a list of hospital specification in Indonesia.

Arranged by :

dr. Bella Donna, Mkes

Phone : 0811286284

Email : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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dr. Hendro Wartatmo, SpB KBD

Phone : 0811283118

Email : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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