Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in health care facilities (WHPA intervention)

72nd
World Health Assembly
Joint Intervention on Item 12.5 Patient Safety – Water,
sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities
I am speaking on behalf of the World Medical Association, supported by the World Health
Professions Alliance (WHPA), representing over 31 million nurses, pharmacists, physical
therapists, dentists, and physicians in over 130 countries.
We thank the Director General for the report which highlights that many Member States are
failing to prioritise and most importantly fund access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
services.
WHPA supports the resolution (EB144.R5) for adoption by the Assembly. We are pleased to see
that the resolution encourages Member States to specifically include health professionals (HPs)
in developing and implementing roadmaps (A72/27 Clause 1.(2)). HPs are best placed to advise
on the practical design and application of new practices and routines in health care facilities.
We are encouraged by the resolution’s emphasis on directing “efforts towards strengthening
health systems as a whole” (A72/27 Clause 2.(1)) and offer our support in reaching out to HPs
globally to assist with the “development of national road maps and targets for WASH in health
care facilities” (A72/27 Clause 2(5)).
We urge governments to allocate resources to develop, implement and monitor WASH
standards, incentivise facility leaders to implement these standards and offer continuing
development and training for HPs. The five moments of hand hygiene should be widely adopted
into training, with training also including information on how to secure WASH during and after
disasters or emergencies.