Dear HIFA colleagues,
In response to Q1, what is unsafe care:
It's a standard practice since the 1990’s (as per CDC and WHO guidelines) to wear gloves in various situations in health facilities e.g., performing venepuncture, etc..
I still remember that it took much effort in behaviour change and funding investments to implement these best practices among the health providers, health facilities, and health policies in LMICs. However, even today, it is not practiced uniformly, which makes me wonder if there is inadequate communication of scientific evidence in simple language to reach the community, thus resulting in unsafe care.
Local and global efforts should be made to empower patients with access to reliable healthcare information so that they can demand health policies for safe care.
Best wishes
Dr. Meena Nathan Cherian, MBBS, MD (Anaesthesia)
(Former WHO Lead Emergency and Essential Surgical Care Program, Geneva, Switzerland).
Director, Global Health New Challenges: Geneva Foundation for Medical Education & Research, Switzerland. www.gfmer.ch/surgery/cancer.htm (NSA-WHO)
Senior Advisor Global Action International Society of Geriatric Oncology Permanent Committees - SIOG
Senior Advisor, International College of Surgeons-Global Affairs. https://icsglobal.org/ (NSA-WHO)
Adjunct Prof.The Chinese University of Hong Kong,Shenzhen,China. https://med.cuhk.edu.cn/en/teacher/371
WHO-HIFA Essential Health Services; mHEALTH-INNOVATE. www.hifa.org (NSA-WHO).
Geneva, Switzerland. +41 763837253(m); cherianm15@gmail.com
HIFA profile: Dr Meena Nathan Cherian was a professor of anaesthesiology from Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, India. She trained, worked, and taught in several countries, USA (Johns Hopkins Hospital), Southeast Asia and Africa. She worked at the World Health Organization Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, as the Emergency and Essential Surgical Care Program Lead where she created the ‘surgical care’ program resulting in the first World Health Assembly Resolution on ‘Emergency and Essential Surgical Care and Anaesthesia in the context of Universal Health Coverage’. Currently she works as the Director, Global Health New Challenges program, Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research, Geneva, Switzerland; Adjunct Prof. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China; Senior Advisor, Global Action, International Society of Geriatric Oncology, Switzerland; Member of the WHO-HIFA Working Group on Essential Health Services and COVID-19; and HIFA mHEALTH-INNOVATE Working Group. She is a member of the HIFA Steering Group. https://www.hifa.org/support/members/meena cherianm15 AT gmail.com