India lacks adequate facilities to deal with the aftermath of a nuclear disaster and must be better prepared to deal with such crises, a top military official said Tuesday. "We do not have the preparedness to tackle calamities such as nuclear disasters and more people could die due to confusion and lack of awareness," said Vice Admiral V K Singh, Director General of the Armed Forces Medical Services.
He said several lakh people would die within seconds of a nuclear attack on any of the country's major cities. Hospitals across the country must have radiation decontamination equipment, burn treatment facilities, bone marrow transplant wards, and special suits for personnel who treat victims of a nuclear attack, Singh told a conference here on "Medical Preparedness and Mass Casualty Management".
Singh said the Indian Army had launched a process for providing such facilities at 200 of its hospitals. "But other hospitals of the country should also be upgraded," he said. Inaugurating the conference, National Disaster Management Authority vice chairman General (retired) N C Vij said the country needs to be better prepared to tackle nuclear disasters and terror attacks. "We need to improve facilities such as ambulances and hospitals which can absorb a large number of patients and trained personnel who can handle them," Vij said.
More emergency management staff is also needed to handle such situations, said P Ravindran, director of medical relief in the Union health ministry. "Some medical institutes have come up with courses on emergency management. We are training personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the Red Cross and some other organisations," he said.
