Hospital disaster preparedness in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review of English literature

BMC Emergency Medicine

Research

Wim Groot¹  Milena Pavlova¹  Bashir Farah² 

[1]Department of Health Services Research, School of Care and Public Health Research Institute, CAPHRI, Maastricht University Medical Center, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands

[2]Department of Health Services Research, School of Care and Public Health Research Institute, CAPHRI, Maastricht University Medical Center, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands

[3]Degahbour, Somali Region, Ethiopia

关键词: Disaster;    Africa;    Sub-Saharan Africa;    Hospital preparedness;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12873-023-00843-5

 received in 2023-01-03, accepted in 2023-06-07,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDisasters are increasing worldwide, with Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) being one of the most prone regions. Hospitals play a key role in disasters. This study provides a systematic review of the evidence on disaster preparedness by hospitals in SSA countries based on English literature.MethodsA systematic literature review was conducted of articles published between January 2012 and July 2022. We searched PubMed, Elsevier, Science Direct, Google Scholar, the WHO depository library and CDC sites for English language publications. The key inclusion criteria were: publications should have been published in the above period, deal with hospital disaster preparedness in SSA, the full paper should have been available, and studies should have presented a comparison between hospitals and/or a single hospital.ResultsResults indicate improvements in disaster preparedness over time. However, health systems in SSA are generally considered vulnerable, and they find it difficult to adapt to changing health conditions. Inadequately skilled healthcare professionals, underfunding, poor knowledge, the absence of governance and leadership, lack of transparency and bureaucracy are the main preparedness barriers. Some countries are in an infancy stage of their health system development, while others are among the least developed health system in the world. Finally, a major barrier to disaster preparedness in SSA countries is the inability to collaborate in disaster response.ConclusionsHospital disaster preparedness is vulnerable in SSA countries. Thus, improvement of hospital disaster preparedness is highly needed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

【 图 表 】

Fig. 3