BeGH hosts 3rd quarter national earthquake drill
LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET – Continuing its commitment in building a disaster resilient Cordillera, the Office of Civil Defense-CAR and partners conducted the third Quarter Nationwide Simultaneous Earthquake Drill (NSED) last August 16, 2018 at the Benguet General Hospital here.
The OCD quarterly conducts NSED every year to make sure every Filipino is disaster-ready. However, this is the first hospital where it was conducted. The hospital’s staffs including doctors, nurses and some patients participated in the drill that started around 2pm. Participants enacted the duck, cover and hold drill in response to the scenario that the region was struck by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake.
Drill on rescue and first aid assistance to injured people in the vicinity was also conducted. To take advantage of this scenario, the hospital also conducted fire drill so that the staff will know the evacuation procedures in similar situations, said Dr. Maria Imelda C. Ulep, Chief of Hospital III.
“Rest assured that this building can withstand 10 Richter scale” she added.
Evaluation and assessment was also conducted right after the drill where the evaluators have given their observation that aims to further improve the hospital’s preparedness to earthquake and fire.
OCD-CAR Regional Director Ruben L. Carandang encourages the participating organizations in the drill to be realistic during exercises.
He said it is important to validate the plan that was made by the hospital management, there should be the planning personnel or organization to see the training readiness of the people to act together regardless of fire and earthquake; check the equipment needed during a disaster to avoid instances in discovering faulty equipping during an actual disaster; and procedures to validate if the organization is responsive towards facing earthquake and fire disasters. He reiterated that there is no flawlessness during an actual disaster, so continuous improvement from previous validation is necessary as practice makes perfect.
The objective of NSED is to minimize casualty, he added.
Another earthquake drill will be conducted on November 4 for the fourth and the last NSED this year. DOROTHY M. REGINO, UC INTERN / ABN
