Disaster drill to test how hospitals respond
The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) will conduct another major mock drill in the Capital to check preparedness of the medical sector in case of a disaster. The exercise called Delhi Emergency Management Exercise (DEMEX) will be conducted to check whether different hospital buildings can withstand the impact of an earthquake.
“In next three months, DEMEX will include various training programmes for the first responders like emergency medical services or paramedics, management of hospital during emergency, nursing care in such sitatutions, community-based relief and chemical industrial disaster preparedness,” said Dev at Delhi secretariat.
He added that training would also focus on traffic management and restoration of transport communications, crowd managment, special considerations for zoo and prison evacuation.
Schools and colleges will also receive training to tackle an emergency situation. Cricketer Virender Sehwag has been roped in as the brand ambassador to spread awareness about disaster preparedness.
While talking about dedicated lanes, Dev said, “We would soon paint a portion of the road as was done during Commonwealth Games and dedicate it for emergency vehicles at the time of emergency,” he said.
M Shashidhar Reddy, vice chairman, NDMA said that nobody can give the number of unsafe buildings in the city.
“Nobody knows how many buildings are unsafe in this city. No study has ever been carried out in this regard. I will request the Delhi government to conduct some kind of survey about it,” said Reddy.
