Current Status of the Disaster Health, Medical, and Welfare Coordination in Japan

Abstract

Introduction:Non-coordinated support during disasters has negative effects on affected communities and people. From the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the United Nations introduced a cluster approach to avoid gaps and duplication of aid. Japan's disaster coordination of support for health and medical care was organized after the 2017 Kumamoto earthquake. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) announced and issued the notice that the prefectures need to establish a system related to health and medical activities in the event of a large-scale disaster. In July 2022, welfare content was added. This study investigated the current status of health sector organizational coordination among health, medical, and welfare responders during 2022 the Large-Scale Earthquake National Exercise (LSENE).Method:The 2022 LSENE was conducted on October 1, 2022 with participation from the Disaster Medical Assistant Team (DMAT) and responders from each prefecture's health and welfare divisions and organizations. Each responder's exercise log sheet and the exercise controller's evaluation were reviewed.Results:Even though there was a notice from the MHLW, organized coordination was conducted only by several medical and health teams. DMAT is the only team with a system to dispatch teams from non-affected prefectures and coordinate well to allocate teams. Some other health and welfare organizations did not have a dispatching system. They had difficulty sending teams to affected areas, especially due to a lack of a systematic response system, training, coordination headquarters, and information sharing. It was suggested that information sharing and coordination among responders is necessary, although information gathering and request judgments related to dispatch coordination are different for each organization.Conclusion:In order to smoothly coordinate support teams for health, medical, and welfare in the event of a disaster, it is necessary not only to improve the coordination headquarters for health, medical, and welfare but also to verify its operation through training.