Ministry, WHO to hold workshop

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