National Marmara Earthquake Drill was held in Istanbul with the participation of 16 provinces

Health organizations from 16 provinces participated in the drill, which was conducted under the coordination of the Ministry of Health to ensure that health services continue uninterruptedly during an earthquake. In the drill, which was held simultaneously yesterday and today in Tuzla, Pendik, Adalar, Kartal, Maltepe, Sultanbeyli, Sancaktepe and Çekmeköy, field practices were carried out for the support health teams from the provinces to take over health services after the disaster.

A total of 1826 personnel and 187 vehicles took part in the exercise, 75 from the Ministry of Health, 1025 from Istanbul, and 726 from supporting provinces. The exercise was conducted in 30 hospitals, 10 Family Health Centers, 7 District Health Directorates, 1 Community Health Center, 1 field hospital, 12 Emergency Response Units, 18 emergency aid ambulances, 1 Mobile Command Center, and 38 UMKE vehicles.

According to the scenario in the drill, 250 people injured in the earthquake were rescued from the rubble and brought to hospitals for treatment.

“WE REALIZED THAT WE NEEDED TO REVIEW OUR PLANS”

After the drill, an information and field observation program was organized at Kartal Dr. Lütfi Kırdar City Hospital.

Speaking here, Istanbul Provincial Health Director Abdullah Emre Güner explained that they went to the region to serve as the Istanbul team after the February 6 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes.
Güner said the following: “After the 5.8 magnitude Silivri earthquake in 2019, we realized that we, as Istanbul, needed to have our own unique solutions. We are talking about a province that serves a population of 16 million, close to 25-30 million including its region, and produces 40 percent of the health service provided and medical service points produced in Turkey . We realized that we needed to have a solution ourselves within 0-12 hours. Our main goal is that we realized that we needed to review all of our plans regarding the issues that we wrote beautifully on paper, conveyed beautifully while conveying, but may have deficiencies while implementing.”

Güner continued by touching on how healthcare professionals will function in the event of a possible earthquake:

“We now need to transform the health service we plan to provide into a system that can be provided reflexively without being dependent on instructions. At least the health service we will provide within the first 0-48 hours. Whichever province will come to support us from outside, should come with good practice and memorization of where they will work. Which path will they use, what path will they come from, which hospital and which service will they go to? We want this to be done without being dependent on any instructions with a system that knows where the orthopedic service is.”

Güner, who stated that the exercise was the second phase, noted that this was implemented in 4 major hospitals in the first phase, which was carried out 6 months ago.

Güner noted that the 6.2 magnitude earthquake on April 23 reminded us that this issue should always be kept alive and never ignored, and said, “It is not possible to prevent what will happen in destiny, but we are responsible for every precaution we do not take and every life we ​​cannot save. Therefore, I think we need to do our job right today.”

“YOU WILL SEE YOUR DEFICIENCIES IN THE DRILL”

Istanbul Deputy Governor Mahmut Hersanlıoğlu stated that healthcare workers are people who work on the thin line between life and death, and said, “There is no successful drill, you see your shortcomings in the drill. What we need to see is what is our shortcoming, what is our deficiency? What can we do? We need to see that. There are 39 districts in Istanbul, but the economic size and population of these districts correspond to 39 provinces in Anatolia or Thrace.”

Hersanlıoğlu added that the density in Istanbul is very high and that this place should not be considered as a province but as half of Turkey.
Emergency Health Services General Manager Eray Çınar and Public Health General Manager Muhammed Emin Demirkol also attended the meeting.