UGM Disaster Response Unit (DERU) has done safety assessment of buildings that are used for emergency responses on Tuesday (?) after the earthquake that hit Lombok recently. UGM team has assessed six hospitals in the city of Mataram.
“The assessment is done on six hospitals, which are RS Kota Mataram, RSUD Propinsi, RS Akademik UNRAM, RSJ Mataram, RSAD, and RS Bhayangkara,” said Ashar Saputra, ST., MT., Ph.D., civil engineering lecturer that is a member of DERU team.
The assessment has been done to observe the safety of the buildings, especially during emergency response. Ashar pointed out that RS Kota Mataram hospital has resumed operations after it was in undecided state. This is made possible because the assessment showed which building is safe. “Especially surgery ward which is very important, it has been operational after assessment,” he said.
As a result, patients who have been treated in makeshift tents are now transferred to the hospital. “The patients can now get better treatment in the hospital,” he said.
The building safety assessment team is an additional team sent by UGM to help earthquake survivors in Lombok. Ashar said going forward, UGM would continue to send technical, non-technical, and logistics teams. “This is a form of service from UGM to the Indonesian people,” he concluded.