Batticaloa Disaster Health Response Team (BDHeaRT) INFO

The Batticaloa Disaster Health Response Team (BDHeaRT) is coordinated and maintained by the offices of the Deputy Provincial Director of Health Services (DPDHS), Batticaloa Teaching Hospital, Terre des homes (Lausanne), Handicap International and other concerned organisations and individuals. The immediate objective of BDHeaRT is to provide urgent medical assistance to people in the Batticaloa District of Eastern Sri Lanka affected by the tsunami of 26th December and its aftermath.

BDHeaRT’s current headquarters are at the DPDHS office (Tel: +94-65-2222931) in Batticaloa Town. Information related to BDHeaRT is also available at http://www.bdheart.blogspot.com/. The current contact person for BDHeart is Dr. M. Ganesan (+94-776063898).

MEDICAL TEAMS
At present, approximately 10 medical teams are operating out of this office daily, holding clinics in the temporary camps/shelters set up to house persons displaced by the tsunami and subsequent bad weather. Each team is made up of 1 medical team coordinator, 2 biomedical doctors and 2 or 3 nurses. There are both preventative and curative components to the work of the medical teams. The preventative aspect is addressed by the coordinator and a doctor (Medical Officer for Health). They would focus on creating groups within camps to carry out the following activities: improve conditions of sanitation and hygiene; keep demographic records on the resident population; manage food stores and distribution. The coordinator will also advise residents of the camps on issues such as toilet cleaning, water sanitation and food hygiene. The team monitors the supply of water, the adequacy of toilet facilities, and also helps chlorinate the water source and disinfect toilets. Tennis balls or other simple play equipment is provided to children, as a very basic mental health promotion activity.

The teams currently visit camps on a rota that aims to provide medical services twice a week in each of the approx. 100 camp/shelter locations in the Batticaloa District. There is still a need to coordinate with other providers of medical services to ensure adequate, consistent and equitable coverage of affected populations. All medical service providers working in Batticaloa who are not yet coordinated with BDHeaRT are requested to make contact at the above address/number
- so that none of us waste scarce resources and time in duplicating or interfering with each other's work. BDHeaRT itself was formed through the consolidation of a number of separate efforts that developed during the initial days following the disaster.

The resources available at BDHeaRT to carry out the above activities are only barely sufficient at present. There are difficulties in obtaining adequate numbers of doctors and 4WD vehicles to staff the teams on a daily basis – the level of available resources fluctuate on a daily basis. At present attempts are being made to mobilise resources within the Batticaloa district (especially in the case of doctors). The availability of required drugs is also inconsistent. There has not been an adequate mobilisation of primary health care workers (Public Health Inspectors and Midwives) available in the district to augment and follow-up the preventative work of the medical clinics. Assistance/collaboration to address these and other shortcomings would be much appreciated.