Poor healthcare facilities: Patients susceptible to more infections

Goals of universal health coverage (UHC) for a large section of world’s population have remained a distant dream with a recently released report pointing out that poor quality health services are holding back progress on improving health in nations at all income levels. The situation is worst in low and middle-income countries including India where 10 per cent of hospitalised patients can expect to acquire an infection during their stay, as compared to seven per cent in high income countries, as per the joint report by the OECD, World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank.

Universal health coverage (UHC) is about ensuring that people have access to the health care they need without suffering financial hardship The report ‘Delivering Quality Health Services — a Global Imperative for Universal Health Coverage’ said that today, inaccurate diagnosis, medication errors, inappropriate or unnecessary treatment, inadequate or unsafe clinical facilities or practices, or providers who lack adequate training and expertise prevail in all countries.

This is despite hospital acquired infections being easily avoided through better hygiene, improved infection control practices and appropriate use of antimicrobials.. At the same time, one in ten patients is harmed during medical treatment in high income countries, says the report titled The report also highlights that sickness associated with poor quality health care imposes additional expenditure on families and health systems.

There has been some progress in improving quality, for example in survival rates for cancer and cardiovascular disease. Even so, the broader economic and social costs of poor quality care, including long-term disability, impairment and lost productivity, are estimated to amount to trillions of dollars each year.

“At WHO, we are committed to ensuring that people everywhere can obtain health services when and where they need them,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We are equally committed to ensuring that those services are good quality. Quite honestly, there can be no universal health coverage without quality care.”

“Without quality health services, universal health coverage will remain an empty promise,” said OECD Secretary-General Ángel Gurría. “The economic and social benefits are clear and we need to see a much stronger focus on investing in and improving quality to create trust in health services and give everyone access to high-quality, people-centred health services.”            

"Good health is the foundation of a country's human capital, and no country can afford low-quality or unsafe healthcare," World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said. "Low-quality care disproportionately impacts the poor, which is not only morally reprehensible, it is economically unsustainable for families and entire countries."