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Geneva [Switzerland]/ New York [US]30 August (ANI): WHO and UNICEF report under the latest Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP).
Some 3.85 billion people use these facilities, putting them at greater risk of infection, including 688 million receiving care in facilities with no health services at all.
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“Sanitation facilities and practices in health care facilities are non-negotiable. Their improvement is critical to pandemic recovery, prevention and preparedness. Without increased investment in essential measures, including safe water, clean toilets and safe management of medical waste ,” said Dr Maria Neira, Director of WHO’s Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health. “I encourage Member States to step up their efforts to deliver on their commitments at the 2019 World Health Assembly to strengthen water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in health-care settings, and to monitor these efforts.”
The latest report, “Progress on WASH in Health Care Facilities 2000-2021: A Special Focus on WASH and Infection Prevention and Control,” establishes for the first time a global baseline for health services – assessing point-of-care visits as well as toilets – more than ever before of countries report on key elements of WASH services in their hospitals and other health centers.
In health, data is now available for 40 countries, representing 35% of the world’s population, up from 21 in 2020 and 14 in 2019. Newly established global estimates reveal a clearer and more worrisome picture of health care facilities.
While 68% of health care facilities have sanitation facilities at the point of care and 65% have facilities for handwashing with water and soap in toilets, only 51% of health care facilities have both and therefore meet the criteria for essential health services. Additionally, one in 10 (9%) healthcare providers globally have neither.
“If healthcare providers don’t have access to health services, patients don’t have healthcare facilities,” said Kelly Ann Naylor, Director of UNICEF WASH and Climate, Environment, Energy and Disaster Risk Reduction (CEED) . “Hospitals and clinics without safe water and basic sanitation services are potential death traps for pregnant women, newborns and children. About 670,000 newborns die each year from sepsis. It’s an irony – not to mention that their deaths can be Prevention.”
The report notes that contaminated hands and the environment play an important role in the transmission of pathogens and the spread of antimicrobial resistance in healthcare settings. Interventions to increase handwashing with water and soap and environmental cleaning are cornerstones of infection prevention and control programs and are critical to providing quality care, especially safe childbirth.
Coverage of WASH facilities remains uneven across regions and income groups:
Facilities in sub-Saharan Africa lag behind in health services. While three-quarters (73%) of health care facilities in the region provide alcohol-based hand sanitizer or water and soap at the point of care, only one-third (37%) of toilets have handwashing facilities with water and soap .
The vast majority (87%) of hospitals have hand hygiene facilities at the point of care, compared to 68% of other facilities.
In LDCs, only 53% of health care facilities have local access to protected water sources. This compares with a global figure of 78%, hospitals (88%) outperforming small medical facilities (77%), and East and Southeast Asia figures at 90%. Globally, approximately 3% of urban areas and 11% of rural areas have no water service.
In countries with available data, one in 10 healthcare facilities globally has no health services. The proportion of health care facilities without health services ranges from 3% in Latin America and the Caribbean and East and South-East Asia to 22% in sub-Saharan Africa. In LDCs, only one in five (21%) health facilities have basic health services. (ANI)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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