Quake- resistance checks conducted for hospitals in areas at risk

BANGKOK, April 20 (TNA) - The Department of Health Service Support (HSS), under the Thai Ministry of Public Health, has sent its engineers to help check hospitals in 22 earthquake-prone provinces in the country's northern, central and southern regions to see whether they are vulnerable to tremors. HSS Director-General Dr. Boonruang Triruangworawat told journalists on April 19 that the move followed two powerful earthquakes in Japan's southern Kyushu Island on April 14 and April 16 and another 7.8-magnitude earthquake off Ecuador in South America on April 17. Dr. Boonruang acknowledged that the 22 quake-prone Thai provinces are either close to fault lines, or stand on soft soil vulnerable to earthquakes. In the current fiscal year ending on September 30, 2016, Dr. Boonruang said, his department's engineers have been assigned to check the structures of all hospitals under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Health, with the task set to begin with those built before 1997 and standing close to fault lines in the northern, the western and the central Thai regions. Dr. Boonruang noted that his department's engineers will also conduct structural improvement for hospitals needed it, beginning with intensive care buildings, followed by those for out-patients, in-patients and staff. Dr. Boonruang assured that new hospitals in Thailand have been designed to be earthquake-resistance. According to the HSS chief, his department is also distributing a manual for the similar earthquake-resistance checks by private hospitals in the country. "Initial inspections found that hospitals in the quake-prone Thai provinces are stable enough. However, the engineers will continue with the checks and plan improvements for vulnerable hospitals," the HSS chief stated. (TNA)