Healthcare facilities still not capable of handling such disaster

Rawalpindi

The horrible images of earthquake on October 8, 2005, considered as the worst ever disaster in the region over a hundred years of history, cannot be wiped out of the memory by millions but still no significant improvement in the healthcare infrastructure has been witnessed so far and even today, the infrastructure is unable to deal with disaster like that.

Eleven years have gone by when the violent shaking of the earth’s crust almost turned upside down towns stretching from Balakot to Battagram to Muzaffarabad in the northern part of the country and AJK along with damaging hundreds of houses and buildings in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The killer quake affected not less than 600,000 families displacing well over 200,000 families in the worst-hit areas while claiming at least 80,000 lives.

October 8, 2005, however, was a day that witnessed a tremendous show of devotion and humanity by the general public from all across the country yet it also exposed the government’s incapability of dealing with like disasters.

October 8, 2005 earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale first jolted the northern part of the country including twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi at around 08:52 a.m. It caused a huge damage to population in towns of Balakot, Battagram, Muzaffarabad and a number of adjoining areas as it wiped out a number of towns and villages completely from the face of the earth in the northern part of the country.

Not only the day on October 8, 2005 was horrible but also at least two months after the quake kept population in the worst-hit areas in constant fear and panic. Population in the affected areas including the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi observed hundreds of aftershocks within days after October 8, 2005. Within twenty days after the earthquake, well over 1,000 aftershocks with magnitude of 4.0 and above on the Richter scale were observed in the affected areas.

The worst ever disaster in the region damaged almost the whole infrastructure in the affected areas including Bagh, Rawlakot and Muzaffarabad in AJK and Balakot and Kaghan valley along with a number of other towns in the northern mountainous range of the country.

At least immediately after the earthquake in 2005, the concerned government authorities were convinced to devise policies to minimise losses in case of like disasters in future but a little was done in real. The rehabilitation in one or the other way is still in process in the affected areas and the life has not yet been as smooth as it was before October 2005.

Even in cities, the earthquake changed the public attitude particularly on the subject of thinking more seriously while building a house or a building.

It is, however, worth mentioning here that the first to respond to the killer quake was the general public all across the country that established thousands of relief camps the same day, on October 8, to help those suffered the most in result of the earthquake.

The earthquake badly exposed the incapability of the health sector that proved to be a failure at that time.

Within four to five hours after the earthquake on October 8, 2005, the hospitals in the areas stretching from Abbottabad to Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Sialkot and even up to Sargodha started receiving a huge burden of critically injured victims. The three teaching hospitals in town including Benazir Bhutto Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital and Holy Family Hospital received well above 700 victims just within 24 hours after the earthquake.

The number of victims continued to increase for weeks after the earthquake and the allied hospitals in town had to admit over 5,500 earthquake victims and almost the same number of victims reached in other healthcare facilities and hospitals of the twin cities most of which were in need of surgeries. Almost all provincial set ups along with provincial and international organisations organised the makeshift hospitals in the affected areas.

The number of major surgeries including complex surgeries involving compound fractures (fractures with open wounds) and plastic surgeries performed at the three teaching hospitals in town crossed the figure of 2000 within two months after the quake. Over 150 amputations had been done at the allied hospitals while over 100 victims reached here after amputations. More than 150 turned into paraplegics (the ones who as a result of injury of the spine become totally unable to move their legs or the lower part of the body).

It would, however, be unfair if the services of the hospital staff and administrations of the healthcare facilities in the region after October 8 earthquake are not appreciated, however on the subject of space, number of staff and equipment, the hospitals proved to be a failure in accommodating hundreds of patients.

The three allied hospitals in town had to keep hundreds of patients and their attendants even in courtyards and corridors and obviously, it was again the public response that enabled healthcare facilities to accommodate patients and their attendants, not less than 15,000 in all, on the subject of food and medicines.

The general public provided the surgical equipments for the affectees. Even from manpower – doctors, staff nurses, physiotherapists and psycho-sociologists – to rehabilitation equipment, medicines and kitchen services at the hospitals were provided by the general public and NGOs.

However, no significant improvement related to space, equipment and staff at the allied hospitals has been witnessed in 11 years after the earthquake in 2005.

After recalling images of the devastating earthquake in 2005, a number of residents in town say that the government did a little to make public sector hospitals in the region capable of dealing with, God forbid, a disaster like that of 2005. The existing healthcare infrastructure is not capable of even dealing with routine burden of patients and majority of patients have to visit private laboratories and hospitals for diagnostic tests and treatment.