Performances of Community Health Centres Based on Knowledge and Practice Regarding Disaster Preparedness in the Hilly Region of Uttarakhand

Abstract

A disaster is a sudden and tragic consequence raised from events like earthquakes, floods, fires, and explosions that lead to harm to existence, goods, and the monetary and affect the community and their tradition. Disaster happens when risk meets the susceptible environment. Health facilities help protect the lives and lessen the pain of wounded people throughout the disasters. The effective management of healthcare services during disasters relies on a deep understanding of the knowledge and practices of hospital staff. Regular assessment of the knowledge and practices of hospital staff helps healthcare management identify areas for improvement in disaster preparedness plans. The study aims to find out the community health centres in hilly region who were not performing well in knowledge and practice regarding disaster preparedness and provide a training session to those CHCs. A quantitative approach was applied to evaluate the knowledge and practice among 156 participants from 16 community health centres. Then qualitative method was used to rate the performances of the CHCs using 4- point scaling. It was found that 4 CHCs (CHC Ghat, CHC Jakholi, CHC Pratapnagar and CHC Khari) performed poor in Knowledge and practice assessment. A session on disaster plan was conducted in these four CHC to enhance the knowledge among hospital staff. Regular disaster training should be provided to all staff.