The Union health ministry is planning to bring in legislation for public health emergencies with a view to equip the respective agencies with adequate funds and provisions to handle effectively the emerging and re-emerging of diseases like SARS, avian influenza, chikunguniya, dengue and nipha.

Under the proposed law, the national disaster management guidelines in respect of medical preparedness and mass casualty management would also be incorporated and implemented effectively. A bill in this regard is being prepared by the ministry, sources said.

The new legislation is also expected to give more freedom and support to the private players to handle public emergency cases without many hassles. It will also provide for smooth transfer of funds required by the private hospitals in the event of mass casualty emergencies.

The implementation of the guidelines would be supported by the Integrated Disease Surveillance which relies on satellite and terrestrial information technology system for data management. The IDSP would serve as an effective early warning system for impending disasters like epidemics and pandemics, training of medical doctors, specialists, paramedics for the different aspects of medical management of mass casualties and availability of skilled and competent mobile teams at all levels able to provide resuscitation, triage to large number of victims at the incident site itself.

As part of strengthening infrastructure in view of handling emergencies, the Government would also implement the National Highway Trauma Care Project. It will cover the entire Golden Quadrilateral and North-south-east-west corridors for trauma care, strengthening of about 200 hospitals from basic trauma care to advanced tertiary care. All these hospitals will be networked with pre-hospital care ambulances so as to provide care during transit and hospitalization within the golden hour.

Health ministry is procuring a mobile hospital system having facilities for operation theatres, pathology labs, imaging units and other support functions, which can be moved or airlifted to the disaster site at very short notice. Besides, the Ministry of Home Affairs also is planning three such mobile units.

The Centre has recently released the National Disaster Management Guidelines - Medical Preparedness and Mass Casualty Management, drafted by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

The guidelines highlight all the medical preparedness measures to be in place to mitigate the impact of any mass casualty event on human lives, health and safety aspects. It gives sufficient directions for development of action plans and other medical preparedness component of DM plans for central ministries/department and States.