62pc healthcare facilities lack basic hygiene
Only 38 percent of the country's healthcare facilities had basic hygiene services, according to the latest Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report by WHO and UNICEF.
The lack of basic hygiene at healthcare facilities is a death trap, especially for newborns and mothers, and the SDG target of universal health coverage is directly impacted by such conditions, according to the report published yesterday.
The report, titled "Progress on WASH in health care facilities 2000–2021: special focus on WASH and infection prevention and control", has established this global baseline on hygiene services for the first time as more countries report on critical elements of WASH services in their hospitals and other health centres.
The report revealed that 32 percent of the government facilities had basic hygiene services, compared to 69 percent among the non-government facilities.
Besides, access to safe water in healthcare facilities is more common in urban areas (90 percent) than in rural areas (67 percent).
Only 34 percent of the facilities offer basic waste management services, while 52 percent have them on a limited scale. Around 14 percent do not have them at all.
The report highlighted that half of the healthcare facilities worldwide lack basic hygiene services with water and soap or alcohol-based hand rub in the toilets of these facilities.
Around 3.85 billion are at risk by using these facilities, including the 688 million who receive care at facilities with no hygiene services at all.
"Hygiene facilities and practices in health care settings are non-negotiable. Their improvement is essential to pandemic recovery, prevention and preparedness. Hygiene in health care facilities cannot be secured without increasing investments in basic measures, which include safe water, clean toilets, and safely managed health care waste," said Dr Maria Neira, WHO director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health.
"If healthcare providers don't have access to a hygiene service, patients don't have a healthcare facility. Every year, around 670,000 newborns lose their lives to sepsis. This is a travesty -- even more so as their deaths are preventable," said Kelly Ann Naylor, Unicef director of WASH and Climate, Environment, Energy, and Disaster Risk Reduction.
The report is being launched at World Water Week taking place in Stockholm, Sweden. The annual conference, which started on August 23 and will end on September 1, aims to explore new ways to tackle humanity's greatest challenges: from food security and health to agriculture, technology, biodiversity and climate.
Comments