Preparedness of Health Facilities in Chandigarh for Biological Disasters

Disasters are the constant companions of mankind. Mostly, any talk on disasters centres around only natural disasters, with anthropogenically caused disasters not being given adequate credence. Utilising an exploratory approach and the World Health Organisation's Hospital preparedness checklist, this paper examines the preparedness of Chandigarh health facilities to combat incidents of Biological Disasters. The findings have been discussed under nine major heads – viz. Command and Control; Communication; Safety and Security; Triage; Surge Capacity; Continuity of Essential Services; Human Resource Development; Logistics and Supply Management and Post Disaster Recovery.