Abstract
The Great Hanshin Earthquake caused many casualities and created enormous surgical and medical needs within 48 hours after impact. However a slow response and time lag by the government created a shortage of emergency medical services. In this situation, emergency medical services were expected from the resident medical staff members in the affected area and functioning hospitals in the neighboring area. We inquired about the behavior of the surgeons living in the affected area and neighboring area after the impact of the earthquake. Sixty percent of them went to their working hospitals and only 19% provided emergency medical care in the affected area. Seventy-eight percent of them had no opportunity to give medical care because they had regular work in their hospitals, and 49% because they waited in their hospital for transportation to the affected area in vain. Fifty-eight percent of them thought back-up support to be the most important role of the neighboring hospitals, but 24% insisted that staff members of neighboring hospitals shouId enter the affected area immediately to perform medical care (triage, treatment, and transportation) there. Thirty-four percent said they would enter the affected area for emergency medical care if a disaster occurs again in the neighboring area, and 41% said they would give emergency medical care in the affected hospital if a disaster occurs again in the living area. It is the affected people who bear the primary brunt of the emergency and who will have to take care of their dead and wounded. The medical staff members living in the affeected area should immediately give emergency medical care in the affected hospital, and neighboring functioning hospitals should not only wait for transportation only as back-up hospitals, but immediately send out specialized medical staffs to perform emergency care and management. It is necessary for general medical staffs and the population to be trained in disaster medicine.
