Asia Pacific Environmental and Occupational Health Journal

Background: Floods are considered as a main disaster in Malaysia with Kelantan to be recorded as a state that is affected by floods almost every year. The 2014 flood was the most significant and largest recorded flood in the history of Kelantan. Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) was the only hospital that was able to withstand the flood and had to manage cases from other hospitals throughout Kelantan. The strategies and recommendations rose from the 2014 flood were high- lighted from the HUSM perspectives to reduce the future flood impact, leading to sustainable development. These strate- gies have been mapped with Disaster Risk Management for Sustainable Development (DRM-SD) Model with the elements of prevention, preparedness, response, recovery and governance.

Methods: A one-day workshop acted as a platform to gather a total of 55 hospital staffs as a focus group to discuss the is- sues related to the 2014 flood as the major concern for the hospital preparedness. The discussions were based on topic of prevention, preparedness, response, recovery and governance.

Results: A total of 51 recommendations associated with the 2014 flood have been identified. This study is imperative as a guideline for the hospital to develop future preparedness strategies and to ascertain, which interventions require priority.

Conclusion: HUSM was the only hospital that was able to withstand and survive in the disaster, but several critical matters are worth to be addressed for future disaster risk reduction in hospital. The most important topics in this specialty include disaster prevention and preparedness, as well as the creation of a properly designed and effective disaster response and re- covery plan and overseen by the effective governance.

Keywords: Flood, Disaster Management, Sustainable Development, Hospital Preparedness