Press Release
April 13, 2009

LOREN WANTS HOSPITALS PROTECTED AGAINST NATURAL CALAMITIES

Senator Loren Legarda yesterday urged the government to use part of its economic stimulus package to reinforce public and private hospitals against earthquakes and other natural calamities to minimize casualties and provide emergency aid.

Speaking in the Senate in commemoration of World Health Day, Loren recalled the earthquake that hit Italy last week and the Baguio earthquake years ago which caused extensive damage to lives and property, including hospitals.

"Hospitals and other health facilities are critical public infrastructures, especially in times of disaster when victims need emergency services and medical care. Therefore, hospitals should be disaster-proof and disaster resilient. This is a must which cannot be compromised," declared Loren, who is currently the chairperson of the Senate committee on demography and health.

"Climate change is another driver of vulnerability that will impact on our health care system and compound this risk. Hospitals should therefore be structurally and organizationally resilient to any disasters. Health facilities and all health workers should be able to function fully, efficiently, and effectively during emergencies." she asserted.

"This is essentially the message of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and the World Health Organization in this year's continuing bi-annual campaign for hospitals safe from disasters," declared Loren, who is the UN "champion" for disaster risk reduction in the Asia-Pacific region.

Loren disclosed that based on international studies, the cost of disaster-proofing a hospital or health facility would add only 4 percent to the cost of construction. "This cost is nothing compared to the risk of destruction and death of patients and staff during a disaster, and the equally high health, economic and development impacts in the aftermath," she stressed. "This lends truth to the saying that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure," she stressed.

"Overall, building the resilience of the health sector to disasters is a worthy investment. It brings the double benefit of saving lives and achieving our development goals. This fact should be appreciated by the national and local governments and the private sector who have invested much in the country's health care system and share common responsibilities in running it."

"At the fiscal level," Loren urged Congress "to push the executive branch into using part of the giant economic stimulus package to fortify and enhance the structural integrity of major government-run hospitals, regional hospitals, provincial hospitals and emergency clinics in the towns. The private health sector should be encouraged to do the same.

" The training and retraining of doctors, nurses, medical technologists and allied health care workers is another mandatory and critical spending item that truly deserves a share in the stimulus package.

"The fiscal policies of government can also be used to help private-run hospitals improve on their structural integrity and their facilities. The government can grant tax incentives to hospitals that invest on risk reduction-related structures, equipment, facilities," she averred.

"It can allow them to import equipment and facilities at reduced levies and fines. Or, tax-free."

Loren also suggested that Congress can also revisit the National Building code to find out whether or not there is a need to update the provisions of the Code to fulfill the requirements of disaster risk reduction.

"Finally, Congress should speed up the passage of the pending draft law that seeks to create the Climate Change Commission. This draft law has several provisions that further the cause of disaster risk reduction," Loren further stressed.

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