A Chinese expert on emergency medicine said in Beijing on Monday
that China was urged to build a national emergency aid network for
natural disasters to guide and coordinate various departments in
rescue operations.
Peng Bibo, chief medical officer of the Chinese International
Rescue Team (CIRT), has just finished rescuing tasks in Pakistan's
quake-hit area last week.
He told Xinhua that China's health, earthquake, agriculture,
fire fighting and water resources departments should be integrated
into the network so as to cope with natural disasters. All these
departments are closely connected when emergency occurred.
Peng said China was urged to build a headquarters coordinating
all related departments. Such a headquarter should be given a
higher administrative title to enable it to supervise others.
He said the current emergency response offices in both the
central and local governments were on alert only when facing
disasters. The temporary coordination in disasters by these offices
proved to be unfruitful due to inefficient communication.
Peng also said it was highly important to teach the public how
to conduct rescues by themselves. The public should be given more
training courses on first aid.
(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2005)