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

Abstract

Background Disasters 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. Methods A 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. Results Results 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. Conclusions Hospital disaster preparedness is vulnerable in SSA countries. Thus, improvement of hospital disaster preparedness is highly needed.

General hospital preparedness in facing flood disasters

“…Six informants were selected for this study who were considered to know the information and problems in depth and could be trusted to become clear, accurate, and reliable data sources in the form of statements, statements, and data that can help understand the problems in this study. [11] The informants determined by the researcher were 6 people as follows:…”

Exploring disaster preparedness in an obstetric unit in a district hospital in the Western Cape Province

“…Questions 1 to 21 of the interview tool were previously published by Moabi [20]. Permission was granted by the author to allow the researcher to use the questions [1][2][3][4][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] in the study. Questions 22 to 31 were drafted by the researcher with specific reference to obstetrics and neonatology.…”

“…Participants [1,3,8,10,11] within the obstetric ward demonstrated an awareness of disaster drills and acknowledged their roles and responsibilities during a disaster drill. This is echoed in the following statements:…”

“…P8: "That's why we do the six hours stats". Furthermore, participants [3,9,12,14,16,17,19] acknowledged that a fully functional communication system is a requirement in successful disaster management.…”

“…Ortiz-Barrios et al [2] explained that disasters cause disruptions in healthcare units as the facilities get flooded with a surge of patients who may need immediate attention. Farah et al [3] assert that disasters are escalating globally, with the African continent and Sub-Saharan Africa contributing to most disasters due to human-made events and natural forces. Conflicts, unsafe food and water, chemical and radiation incidents, building collapses, transportation incidents, a lack of water and power, air pollution, antimicrobial resistance, and the effects of climate change are also classified as disasters because they cause a sudden influx of deaths [4,5].…”