DUSHANBE, December 11, 2008, Asia-Plus — Only 5 percent of medical facilities in Tajikistan have emergency-response budgets, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH).
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Ms Fotima Yoqubova, a spokeswoman for a MoH, said that the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Mission in Tajikistan jointly with the MoH had surveyed medical facilities in the country over the past two months.
“70 percent of those surveyed said they have plan of emergency-response actions, only 20 percent conducted disaster-response exercises, and only 5 percent of medical facilities have emergency-response budgets” the spokeswoman said, noting that the main objective of the survey was to assess primary medical aid and emergency services, infrastructure, nutrition, management, personnel resources and provision of medical facilities with medicines and medical materials.
The survey revealed medical facilities that are experiencing shortage of safe dinking water, requiring repairs or do not have generators and coal and firewood stocks.
