Mock Drill to strengthen disaster management system

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

A two-day workshop and live mock drill were jointly organised by the Government of Maharashtra (GoM) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to strengthen the state’s Disaster Management System. The initiative was undertaken by Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation’s Disaster Management section, with the primary objective of assessing the preparedness of healthcare facilities for emergency situations. A large-scale mock drill was successfully conducted at the Government Cancer Hospital.

On August 19, the CSMC and representatives from 25 selected hospitals in the city participated in the drill. The purpose of this exercise was to evaluate how hospitals follow emergency management protocols.

The mock drill assessed the Preparedness – Readiness of hospitals to handle sudden large-scale patient influx; the Medical Response – Efficiency of first aid and patient care services; the Resource Management – Availability of critical equipment and resources during emergencies and the Communication – Effectiveness of internal communication and public information dissemination.

This exercise provided participants with hands-on experience of real-life emergency scenarios and helped identify areas requiring improvement. Prior to the drill, a workshop was conducted focusing on both internal and external components of hospital-level emergency management.

The programme was supervised by a team of experts including Dr Paras Mandlecha (CSMC Medical Officer of Health) Dr. Arvind Gaikwad (Officer on Special Duty, Government Cancer Hospital), Dr. Pankaj Kumar Roy, Dr. Archana Rane, Dr. Vaishali Mudgalakar, Dr. Balkrishna Rathore, and Swapnil Sardar (Head - Disaster Management Cell).

Deputy Commissioner Ankush Pandhare reviewed the two-day workshop and extended important guidance to all participants.