India commits to address Health Care associated infection in the country
India has committed to address the Health Care associated infection
in the country. A pledge to this effect
was signed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in the presence of
World Health Organization’s representatives at a ceremony in New Delhi today. The Global Patient Safety Challenge with the
theme “Clean Care is Safer Care” was inaugurated by the Minister of State
for Health and Family Affairs, Smt. Panabaka Lakshmi. The theme emphasizes the critical role of hand hygiene in controlling
the spread of infections.
Speaking on the occasion Smt. Lakshmi said “ the relevance of hand
hygiene and infection control are being integrated in the medical curriculum
and health care workers educated to
practice hand hygiene”. The Minister
told the gathering that experts from the country have contributed to the WHO
guidelines on hand hygiene. Smt. Panabaka
Lakshmi said based on the recommendations of an Expert Committee, 11 hospital
waste management projects have been implemented with the support from the
WHO in 8 States and also in Delhi.
The Minister also released India Country Report on Global Patient Safety
Challenge.
India is the first country of the south-eastern region to inaugurate
‘Clean Care is Safer Care’ initiative and to sign the pledge committed to
address health care associated infection.
Dr. S.J. Habayeb WHO representative
in India said “signing the pledge reflects the commitment of Indian Government
to address the issue of patient’s safety in the country.”
He said WHO will be closely working with the Indian Government to provide
technical support.
The Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Shri Prasanna Hota said Patients
Safety Day may be declared to focus on the issue and a movement may be promoted
to secure patients rights and safety.
Prof. Didier Pittet, leader of the
Global Patients Safety Challenge said “Promoting Clean Care is Safer Care
is not a choice. It is our duty to
patients, their families and health-care workers. Let us move forward together. Each
of us can make a small difference; significant improvement requires an effort
from all of us.”
Director General, DGHS, Dr. R.K. Srivastava also spoke on the occasion.
To date about 30 countries from various regions have already signed
the pledge or are planning to do so this year.
Bahrain, Belarus, Georgia, Hong Kong, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Malaysia, Moldova, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia,
Slovenia, Switzerland, Tajikistan and the UK have already signed the pledge.
This event follows the Global Patient Safety Challenge launch in October
2005 at WHO Headquarters in Geneva. India
was one of the eight prominent member countries, which participated in that
event.
Background Note
Health care-associated infection is a major issue
in patient safety as it affects millions of people worldwide and complicates
the delivery of patient care. Infections contribute to patient deaths and
disability, promote resistance to antibiotics and generate additional expenditure
to those already incurred by the patients' underlying disease. At any given time, more than 1.4 million people worldwide become seriously
ill from such infections. Between 5% and 10% of patients admitted to hospitals
in developed countries acquire these infections, the report says. In some
developing country settings, the proportion of patients affected can exceed
25%.
The
Global Patient Safety Challenge 2005-2006, a core programme of the World Alliance
for Patient Safety, brings together the WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in
Health Care with ongoing work on blood safety, injection and immunization
safety, safer clinical practices, and safe water, sanitation and health care
waste management.
The Global Patient Safety Challenge builds upon existing
country efforts and initiatives to fight health care-associated infections.
Reducing the spread of these infections will be a critical step towards enhanced
and long term safety in health care.
To fight the spread of health care-associated infections
which affect hundreds of millions of patients worldwide each year, WHO and
its partners launched the Global Patient Safety Challenge with the theme “Clean
Care is Safer Care” in October 2005. As part of the launch the WHO Guidelines
on Hand Hygiene in Health Care (Advanced Draft) were made available. The aim
of the launch was to strengthen the commitment of interested Member States
to the Global Patient Safety Challenge and the critical role of hand hygiene
in controlling the spread of health care-associated infection.
The implementation of the Global Patient Safety Challenge
comprises three major strategies:
global and national "Clean Care is Safer Care"
campaigns,
country statements pledging to address health
care-associated infection,
testing implementation in districts.
As part of the implementation strategies, WHO Member
States have been invited to make a formal statement pledging their support
to implement actions to reduce health care-associated infection within their
country and to share results and learning internationally.
PVR/Hb
(Release ID :18857)