Paper for the Workshop on ‘Disaster Management for the Health Sector in Indonesia’,
Bali Padma Hotel, Kuta, 11-13 Juni 2003

VOLUNTEER ASSISTANCE AT SANGLAH HOSPITAL
AFTER THE KUTA BLAST (12-10-2002)

4. Intake Desk, Hotlines and Crisis Centre

   To provide adequate service to the public the intake and information desk, hotline and crisiscentre should be seen as an integrated system for reasons clarified below.

   An information and intake desk mainly run by Indonesian volunteers was set-up first outside the policlinic at Sanglah hospital on Sunday morning 13^th where one could consult the first of many lists of victims/missing persons. The blood transfusion centre was opposite, a lot of people heading for it that day as well. The information desk was moved more inside on the following day but was still very accessible to the general public and was manned 24 hours for many days to come. On the two walls along the corridor at the policlinic leading to the desk much important information was pasted. Information from the data collection team at the hotline was used to inform the public as well.

   A hotline was set-up a few hours later close to the emergency unit for which a small ward for patients was made available. A photocopying machine was lend by an international school. Necessary office materials were immediately bought with volunteer organisation's money. Tables and chairs were borrowed from other offices nearby. The hotline became operative with 5 international telephone lines (hunting) provided at 15.00 hrs. by the telephone company through mediation of a volunteer. The hotline was run by a group of mainly foreign nationals as most calls were expected to come from abroad and fluency in several languages was needed. The lines were manned for 24 hours during the first days. In the second week the Red Cross took over the Hotline Centre, but lack of language skills other than Indonesian and Balinese hampered full effectiveness.

   I like to point out, that a service like an international hotline cannot be provided by a local hospital, even if hospital personnel is language trained. The point is, that one deals with people who are upset and need someone who reacts in a culturally accepted way. Therefore it is appropriate to involve foreign volunteers for this.

   A hotline for Balinese and other Indonesian families and manned by Indonesian volunteers was also established later in the day, because not everyone in the international hotline could answer Indonesian callers and too many people started to come into the hotline room anyway. The Indonesian hotline was situated at another location, but communicated with the data collection section at the international hotline. The Indonesian hotline also maintained contact with volunteers from Parum Samigita and the pecalang (local security) at Ground Zero, Kuta.

   Apart from the hotline all consulates functioned as focal points for foreign families making enquiries about relatives in Bali and receiving these families when coming to Bali⁸. A regular line of information from hotline to consulates developed over time.

   The crisis centre was established on Sunday as well, but started to function more prominently on the days after when more and more families of foreign victims flew into Bali and headed for the hospital. Indonesian families were also received at the crisis centre for questions, councelling and requests for financial assistance. Volunteers at the crisis centre therefore consisted of both foreigners and Indonesians, mostly women. The very spacy hall on the third floor (stairs going up right next to the intake desk) proved excellent for the purpose. It was away from the hospital hubbub and sufficiently far removed from the morgue and the gloom of that place. So people could ask for and receive information and 'councelling' in a relatively quite environment. There was also a coffee and food corner. Most incoming families could talk in their native language. One should take into account that special preparation was necessary for people to go and see the bodies in the morgue which were in most cases horribly disfigured.

   The crisis centre maintained contacts with volunteers who were waiting for family members coming in from abroad at the airport. The volunteers helped them with transport to wherever they wanted to go, shielded them off from insolent press and if they wanted to go to the hospital made sure someone was there to receive them.

   Recommendations: intake and information desk should be established and can be run with volunteers in an accessible and visible place (but with a coordinator/supervisor from the hospital as authority). establish of a hotline. This is crucial, especially in case many victims of disaster are not residents of the area. restrict access to hotline so people can work without being distracted. Establish separate hotlines if people from different nationalities are involved. if there are foreign victims (deceased and injured) involve foreign volunteers through their organizations (rotary, women’s organizations, local NGO’s) and travel guides for hotline and crisis centre. If the hotline is run by the local Red Cross, make sure that language and other relevant skills are available and if not, involve volunteers. always establish information desk, hotline, crisis centre at the hospital itself. Direct access to data via hotline and morgue are vital. situate a crisis centre at a quiet place, close to intake but removed from morgue.

   
   

   8 After a few days, the combined honorary consulates and the only formal consul in Bali, the Australian one, agreed that the victims would best be handled through the latter consulate and considered that the hotline and crisis centre at the hospital could be dismantled. However, this did not materialize, people continued to come to the hotline and crisis centre at the hospital, probably because these services were at the hospital.

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