Investigation On Emergency Resources And Ability To Deal With Sudden Chemical Poisoning In Health Institutions Of Guangdong

Crisis management for emergency public health events is a systemic engineering of public welfare to build a harmonious society, and to safeguard social stableness and fundamental interests of the people and a systemic engineering to fulfill the duties of the government. Therefore, we carry out this research to investigate the emergency resources and ability in health institutions to deal with sudden chemical poisoning in Guangdong and to provide scientific basis for emergency management system building.-Objective(1) To describe the status of emergency resources on responding to sudden chemical poisoning emergencies in Guangdong.(2) To analyze the gap between the status and the demand of emergency resources and capacity to respond to sudden chemical poisoning emergencies in Guangdong.(3) To make recommendations on emergency resources and ability which are urgently needed according to the research above.MethodsCombined with qualitative/quantitative analysis and benchmarking, literature retrieval,expert consultancy, questionnaire survey and field investigation were the methods mainly used in this investigation. (1) Literature retrieval. Medical literatures about emergency resources and capacity to respond to sudden chemical poisoning were searched and retrieved in digital library at home and abroad. Literature summaries were developed to learn the previous research design, approaches,analytical methods, ect. (2) Expert consultancy. According to the literature summary, we draw up the personal interview outline and three questionnaire based on the" Health emergency troop equipment references (draft) "and the emergency duties of Health Bureau, Health Inspection Institution, Prevention and Treatment Center for Occupational Diseases (PCC) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And then, an expert counseling meeting was held to consult the recommendations. With their knowledge and experience, the expert panel assessed and revised the research objectives, objects, study content, investigation methods and anticipate results. The personal interview outline and three questionnaire were modified and finished after the meeting. (3) Questionnaire survey. Questionnaires were delivered by mail or E-mail to 273 institutions.21 copies were sent to Health Bureau; 122 copies were sent to PCCs and CDCs; 130 copies were sent to Health Inspection Institutions. (4) Field investigation. According to the development tendency of industry, cities in Pearl River Delta, such as Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen Dongguan and Huizhou were selected as the key points of investigation. At the same time, the data collected from this area would be verified. (5) Personal Interview. Sudden chemical poisoning emergency staff from different cities and institutions were invited to the personal interview. The interview notes would be taken,summarized and analyzed to compose the paper. (6) Data process and analysis.For the institutions which were excluded in the field investigation, telephone follow-up and E-mail were made to verify the ambiguous or missing information. Then, Excel databases were set up for data sorting, entry and editing. Results were analyzed using SPSS 13.0 for windows.ResultsFrom March 2009 to December 2009, questionnaires were sent to 273 institutions which were affiliated with 21 prefecture-level cities in Guangdong. Responses were obtained from 158 institutions which included 19 health bureau,76 disease prevention and control institutions,63 health inspection institutions.In the 158 investigated institutions,2288 emergency staff and 43 panel of experts were in serve. In the last three years,80 (50.6%) institutions had carried out relevant training,46 (29.1%) institutions had ever participated in the emergency drill.40% of institutions were satisfied with their human resource. According to the "Health emergency troop equipment references (draft)", the entire pass rate of the sudden chemical poisoning emergency equipment were relatively low. None of the institutions had allocated the required equipment, the 76 disease prevention and control institutions only allocated an average of 13 kinds, while the 63 health inspection institutions only allocated an average of 2 kinds. Of the 76 disease prevention and control institution, only 14 (18.4%) institutions had stocked emergency antidotes. In the year 2008, only 30 institutions had invested special funds in a total of 1.96 millions RMB, which was equivalent to an average of about 65,600 yuan. The rest 128 institutions were still lack of this special funds. 83.5% of institutions had emergency organizations and 55 of them were emergency office. The proportion of institutions which had set up sudden chemical poisoning emergency work system and emergency response plan were 74.1% and 74.1% respectively.ConclusionGuangdong health institutions had preliminarily set up sudden chemical poisoning emergency at provincial, city and county networks. Construction of emergency human resources, professional competence and materials stockpile have begun, but there is still a long way to achieve the goal of Guangdong Provincial People's Government. The deficiency in the emergency management system is in need of further study and to be solved by related departments.