Covid Lessons For Healthcare Practices

The government must increase coverage, improve quality of care through infection prevention and control

- Philip Mathew

The Centre and States have been taking extensive measures to prevent a large outbreak of the coronavirus in India. The strategies include quarantining patients coming from countries reporting local transmission, testing and isolation of suspected patients and a broad campaign to improve community hygiene practices.

The people have responded positively to the hygiene practices. Hand-washing kiosks have come up at public places in many states. The public has been using it. This is remarkable for a country where only 60 per cent of houses have access to soap and water, according to the latest National Family Health Survey.

This renewed interest in hygiene should extend to healthcare facilities also. Studies have shown varying levels of hygiene practices in healthcare facilities in India. Observational studies suggest only 23 per cent people follow standard hand-washing recommendations at India's newborn care facilities. Large studies to evaluate injection practices in the country show more than 60 per cent of injections were unsafe.

India has made significant progress in improving the quality of healthcare and hygiene practices through the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals. But this is limited to bigger hospitals and urban areas. The ‘Kayakalp’ initiative of the Centre has tried to take the philosophy of hygiene to small facilities. But the success has been varying.

Quality matters