Not a drill: Earthquake empties Khon Kaen hospital

[webfact]

Not a drill: Earthquake empties Khon Kaen hospital

By The Nation

 

 

Social media users are marvelling at a video taken by a relative of a patient at Ratchaphruek Hospital in Khon Kaen showing staff evacuating more than a hundred patients from the building as it rattled with earthquake tremors on Thursday morning (November 21).

 

The epicentre of the 6.4-magnitude earthquake 10 kilometres underground in Laos was just 31km from Chaloem Prakiat district in Nan province and its effects could be felt as far away as Bangkok.

 

 

Dr Teerawat Srinakarin, the hospital’s chief executive, said staff informed him about the tremors at about 7am and he rushed to the facility to assess the situation.

 

 

“The vibration lasted about a minute so the staff used our fire evacuation plan to move all patients outside,” he said. “By 8am, once we were sure there would be no further vibrations that could lead to serious incidents, we moved everyone back inside. No one was injured.

 

 

“We plan to conduct earthquake evacuation drills in case this happens again.”

 

Related Story: 6.4 quake reported in Laos, tremors felt in many parts of Thailand

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30378596

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-11-21

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[cardinalblue]

So by evacuating the hospital, are they validating that the hospital is not built to earthquake standards?

 

Hospital staff is taught to shelter in place and taught NOT to evacuate as patients and staff are most at risk moving from inside to outside from falling debris and worse...

 

“once we were sure there would be no future activity” 
 

I wonder what criteria they used to determine future movement or not? they need to share with the rest of the world...

 

first question - was the evacuation necessary? Was there vital structural damage to warrant an evacuation? Who did the CEO consult with to determine evacuation criteria?

 

at least this counts as a drill....

Edited November 22, 2019 by cardinalblue

[nahkit]

2 hours ago, cardinalblue said:

So by evacuating the hospital, are they validating that the hospital is not built to earthquake standards?

Some people are never happy are they, always needing to find fault.

 

It's called taking precautions.

 

If there had been a second tremor that caused damage and/or deaths I've no doubt that you would have been straight on here telling us that they should have got the patients out after the first one.

[revup]

 

7 hours ago, cardinalblue said:

first question - was the evacuation necessary? Was there vital structural damage to warrant an evacuation?

Cynics abound on this forum. Negative voice always knows better lol.

[KKr]

Great that the staff took action and executed an apparently well prepared security protocol !

whether evacuation was necessary? 
yes it was, there was an earthquake and they moved patients out after a first and second tremor in case a stronger quake would hit.

should the emergency response have been different, maybe, 
but I am sure that their Calamity response management people will evaluate and fine-tune their well prepared plans.
And from the smooth evacuation, it seems to me that they are in a much better position to assess the necessity of changes in their calamity response than most TV-experts.