Ministry, WHO to hold workshop

JAKARTA: Officials and policy-makers from the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) are to begin on Wednesday a workshop on disaster management for the health sector in Denpasar, just a few kilometers from the site of the bomb attacks that killed 202 people in October last year.

Titled "Lessons Learned from the Bali Bomb," the three-day workshop is designed to assess how hospitals can improve their management of and response to such calamities. The workshop will also highlight the need for the involvement and coordination of other sectors such as the police, the Armed Forces, the Red Cross, NGOs and the community itself, the World Health Organization announced.

Dr. Uton Muchtar Rafei, Regional Director of WHO for the Southeast Asia Region, will present the inaugural speech in the event organized by the Ministry of Health with support from the Office of the WHO Representative to Indonesia, Dr. Georg Petersen.

Bali Governor Dewa Bratha will deliver an address at the welcoming ceremony while Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi is scheduled to open the discussions. Also attending the workshop will be 59 participants from Jakarta, Bali, Makassar and Aceh, as well as representatives from international agencies and donor countries.

The workshop will endeavor to create better coordination among the medical community for natural and man-made disasters, because the health sector is seen as the most important link in the emergency and disaster response chain and must respond appropriately. -- JP