SA Hospitals Ill-Equipped to Handle Major Disaster

A FIFA medical adviser has warned that South Africa's public hospitals are "completely unprepared" to handle a major World Cup-related disaster such as a crowd stampede or riot.

"Hospital disaster plans are actually a disaster," said Professor Efraim Kramer, a Fifa medical officer and adviser to the local organising committee.

Kramer, head of emergency medicine at Johannesburg's Witwatersrand University, told a doctors conference on Wednesday that public hospitals had "absolutely no idea" how to implement disaster management plans because they had not been tested.

In contrast, Kramer said private hospitals, some of the best in the world, were better prepared and had good disaster plans. The South African government says public hospitals would handle at least 70 percent of the World Cup workload.

'Hospitals not ready for WC disaster'
Reuters
April 15, 2010

SA Police Receive Riot Control Training From French

In order for local police forces to prepare for the 2010 World Cup, French police have come to Nelson Mandela Bay to train officers on crowd and riot control.

NELSON Mandela Bay police officers are being trained by French officers on crowd management and control in preparation for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Police spokesman Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said yesterday that the training was being conducted by French police officers, who had come to South Africa to provide skills to local personnel.

Source:
French officers train local police on crowd control
The Herald
June 1, 2009