PERCEPTION OF DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AMONG EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN IN INDIA.

INDIA is a country that’s more prone to natural Calamities & disasters [UNESCO Bangkok, 2007.] .No city in the India can be said to be free from Risk and Hazard of facing such acts. Disaster is a serious public health issue and one of man’s oldest concerns, and we have no control over when and where they happen, but with proper preparedness and planning for all phases of disaster, we can minimize the consequences of any disaster. In last few decades frequency and intensity of various disasters have been significantly increasing all over the world. Emergency physicians are main players in disaster responses but their knowledge levels of disaster medicine and their psychosocial status are not readily available. This study aimed to evaluate psychosocial preparedness levels and training needs of disaster medicine among potential disaster responders and presented a necessity to popularize disaster medicine education Methodology: This study is a survey based descriptive study, to fulfill this purpose a questionnaire was developed and a pilot study was done to validate the questionnaire. A web link for this survey sent through email, to Emergency department directors of varies multispecialty hospitals with accredited emergency department, requesting them to circulate this link among their consultant / postgraduate trainees and residents. Results: 124 participants from 16 states of India completed this survey over a period of 6 months. Majority of emergency physicians agreed hospitals in India are inadequately prepared to handle various kinds of disasters, whereas around 50% emergency physicians are not aware of either stockpiles of PPE of their hospitals or their adequacy. Where about 44% respondents did not know the access to resources in case of emergency events. Interestingly, in the study; around 83% of Emergency physicians were ready for being trained in the form of classroom teaching despite their busy schedules, which needs to be appreciated properly. Conclusion : The study results show that there is enormous scope of further improvement in various aspects of disaster preparedness. Though in certain areas the result were satisfactory, majority of the results demand improvement. In the current scenario there is a need for an organized effort for the spread of disaster preparedness amongst the Emergency physician in India. As per the outcome of this study ,it can be concluded that perception of disaster preparedness among Emergency physician in India is still an iceberg phenomenon. Thereby emphasizing upon the fact that hospital administration authorities, government and nongovernmental agencies should take a serious note on it and take measures to inculcate awareness among EPs and should treat finding of this study with seriousness and treat it as a base for further studies for improvement in this field.