Indian Express
12 August 2010
By Anuradha Mascarenhas

SIX months after the German Bakery blast, the district collectorate and hospitals in the city have come up with a new model for disaster management. Under the scheme, the city will be divided into geographic zones and each major hospital in a zone will be given charge of managing and coping with any disaster – natural or man–made – in the area.

District Collector Chandrakant Dalvi, who held a meeting of hospitals, said they had identified 20 such hospitals that could provide relief in a particular area if any accident occurred. Dr Arun Jamkar, dean, BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, said medical relief and triage needed to be streamlined whenever any disaster or calamity happened.

At present, the disaster management cell headed by the collectorate communicates via police and patients are sent to Sassoon General Hospital or a few nearby hospitals. "As a result, precious time is lost," Jamkar said.

The hospitals have proposed that the areas under Pune Municipal Corporation, Pimpri–Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and surrounding areas should be divided into zones. Each major hospital in a particular zone will be given charge of managing disasters in the area.

The identified hospital will appoint a co–ordinating officer and start a helpline. After communicating with the police or the disaster management cell at the collectorate, the hospital will send medical relief within 20 minutes of the incident. The medical relief team will do primary triage at site, classifications and transport patients to nearby hospitals. Jamkar said it would also organise transport of additional patients to nearby hospitals. The secondary triage will be done later, and the patients will be sent to other larger hospitals if specialty services are required.

Dalvi said the aim would be to clear the site within two hours of the incident.