Health facilities

Health Facilities are infrastructure designed to provide medical care for any person who may require it.

Description

Health infrastructure can occur in varying sizes and levels of intensity, often dependent upon the primary focus of the infrastructure. They can range in size from small health centres, designed to serve a small community or residential areas up to large acute hospitals which cover large urban areas.

Functions

Social

The key social functions of health infrastructure is in the provision of health care to those who require it.

Economic

The economic function of health infrastructure is to ensure the health of the population and workforce. Moreover, health infrastructure creates direct employment (economic impact) to health care professionals of all levels of education. As a secondary economic impact, health infrastructure creates jobs and income by purchasing goods and services from other supplying businesses and organisations.

The impact of security threats is primarily crime related (e.g. burglary, theft of medicine, violence and aggression against patients and employees). Crime generates costs in anticipation of crime (e.g. locks, surveillance, etc.), as a consequence of crime (loss of property), and in response to crime (police investigation, legal system, etc.). Also security measures impose economic impact.

Mobility

The mobility associated with the different health infrastructure facilities will vary significantly depending on the type of facility, its location, the availability of public transportation modes and the patient population.

Safety

Health facilities contribute directly to the safety, welfare and well-being of people. Disruption of these services can result in unsafe situations, as people in emergency situations would not receive required help.

In general, safety functions associated with health facilities include the usual functions such as:

• shelter from the environment (weather)
• prevention and repression of incidents (fires, floods, air quality, etcetera)
• constructional safety (including the dynamic stresses that large crowds can exert)
• facilities to assure a timely retreat to a safe environment for the people present in case of incidents (Evacuation Management).

Security Issues

The security risks associated with health infrastructure are also dependent on the size and role of the particular piece of infrastructure. The risk of theft is always present, especially of medicines which may hold black market value, and this risk is ever present in all types and sizes of health infrastructure, especially in urban areas. Hospitals and other in-patient treatment facilities also have inherent risks associated with weak, recuperating or elderly patients that may be vulnerable to attacks, from visitors, other patients or even staff. Another important security consideration, relevant in the wake of a serious event, is the possibility of danger arising out of large volumes of people converging on a hospital seeking medical attention or in search of injured relatives.

Measures

Policing, alarm systems, private security...