Puerto Rico Earthquakes 2019 - 2020
Puerto Rico
currently has a total of 63 hospitals managed by private and public
sectors with nearly 12,000 authorized beds per the Puerto Rico
Hospital Association. In the San Juan metropolitan region there are 26
hospitals with a total of 4,900 authorized beds. In the Ponce region
there are 10 hospitals with 1,800 authorized beds. In the Mayaguez
region there are 10 hospitals with 1,500 authorized beds.
The
first step is to verify that hospitals would be likely to survive a
7.5 or even an 8.0 earthquake. The second step would be an emergency
status system so that hospital administrators and government officials
can know staff, supplies needed, available capacity and where
individual citizens are. The population of Puerto Rico is about
3,200,000 - including 10,000 on Vieques and 2,000 on Culebra. The main
island is about 180 kilometers by 65 kilometers. By some
estimates 30,000 people were injured by Hurricane Maria. Puerto Rico
would be very fortunate if the number was not double that if an
earthquake struck near San Juan in the future.
Sadly, the number
of Haitians injured 10 years is unlikely to ever be known, but
acquaintances in Doctors Without Borders estimate over 600,000. Puerto
Rico is tragically short of doctors - we believe less than 10,000 are
in practice. For quality medical care Puetro Rico needs at least seven
times than many doctors. There are two serious problems - doctors take
a long time to produce, and with low Medicare payments doctors are
disinclined to stay. The situation is no better with nurses - we
are informed there are less than 20,000. The third step is to be able
organize doctors,
pharmacists, nurses and paramedics during an
emergency. We would suggest a fourth step that verifies that medical
clinics and pharmacies would be likely to survive a disaster - that
includes emergency water supplies and electrical power.
Recommendations - Hospitals,
medical clinics and pharmacies