Preparing Plan for Disasters and Public Health Emergencies: Inspire Project Workshop with Disaster Experts and Primary Care Stakeholders

December 2023. In order to develop a preparedness plan for disasters and public health emergencies in primary care settings, the Faculty of Medicine, Udayana University, through the Inspire Project, held a workshop with stakeholders in the field of disasters and primary care. The workshop that was held at the Golden Tulip Essential Hotel, attended by representatives from the Bali Province Disaster Management Agency, Bali Province Health Office, Regional Disaster Management Agencies (BPBD), District Health Offices, and 16 Community Health Centers (CHCs) from 4 districts/cities in Bali Province, namely Denpasar, Badung, Bangli, and Karangasem.

At the workshop opened by Dr. dr. Anak Agung Sagung Sawitri, MPH, who represented Prof. Dr. dr. Komang Januartha Putra Pinatih, M.Kes as the head researcher of the Inspire Project, began by describing the overview of the project to the workshop participants from the background, research objectives as well as the data collection process. In her presentation, Dr. Sawitri explained the important role of the Community Health Center as the front guard of primary health care in identifying, mitigating and responding to disasters which are likely to occur more frequently due to climate change. However, until now there is no clear framework regarding the involvement of CHC in the entire disaster management process. This gap is what the Inspire Project is trying to cover.

After that, the presentation was continued by dr. Cintya Denny Yuliyatni, MPH who explained the results of the Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) study in 48 Community Health Centers from 4 selected districts/cities. In general, all CHCs already have a rapid response team that has received disaster-related training. However, there are still disparities in the number of health workers available in several districts. At the end of this session, a discussion was held with the workshop participants regarding the suitability of the data that had been collected.

The workshop activities were then continued with a Focused Group Discussion (FGD) where the participants were divided into three groups, namely: the BPBD and District Health Offices groups; Community Health Centers from Denpasar and Karangasem District group; and the Community Health Centers from Badung and Bangli District group. The FGD was divided into two sessions to explore the capabilities of primary health care to identify disaster risks, mitigating risks, and responding to a disaster in the first session and identification of key challenges and facilitators faced by primary health care in the second session. The workshop ended with a discussion session and feedback from all workshop participants regarding the discussion process that had been carried out in each group.

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