KARACHI: Unhygienic conditions in govt-run hospitals
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Nov 17: The lack of infection control has badly affected the efficiency of hospitals, particularly the public sector health facilities.
The prevalence of certain bacteria, which is often contracted by patients owing to lack of hygienic standards, has made the use of antibiotics highly cost-intensive, it has been learnt.
The city’s facilities — Civil Hospital, Jinnah Hospital, Abbasi Shaheed, Liaquatabad Hospital, Saudabad Hospital, Qatar Hospital, Sobhraj Maternity Home, Sarfraz Rafique Shaheed Hospital and even Spencer’s and many others — are plagued by the problem of unhygienic atmosphere in and around these facilities.
Particularly the CHK, one of the country’s largest health facility, with the condition of wards—-medical, surgical, orthopaedic, neurosurgery, etc—offers a repulsive sight to visitors, more so to the patients and their attendants.
Lack of maintenance of hygienic standards is writ large on the benches, walls and floors of these wards and the patient may well fear that his condition will get worse by the time he leaves the hospital. Besides insanitary conditions in the corridors and pathways are also no secret.
The cardiac unit in the middle of the hospital does not look like a part of it. It is a well maintained unit, run and maintained by philanthropists. Similar is the case of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation. It is situated in the same CHK premises, but remains neat and tidy throughout day and night.
As far as the JPMC is concerned, it often suffers on account of sewage problems. The sewage from the JPMC drains and from other drains remains accumulated on the main road, particularly in front of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases. The situation was brought to normal a few weeks ago when the World Heart Day was observed at the NICVD.
All the medical and surgical wards in the JPMC have been continuously suffering from lack of upkeep and maintenance. The toilets in the premises also present a repulsive sight.
Such a situation prevails in almost all the government-run public sector facilities. Though some patients and their attendants could also be held responsible, lack of budgeting and monitoring on maintaining hygienic standards by hospital administrations are contributing to the prevalence of cross infections.
The National Institute of Child Health, however, has come up with a project aimed at minimising the incidence of such infections. The infection control project, the first of its kind in any public sector hospital, has been effectively contributing in curtailing the cost spent on antibiotics at the National Institute of Child Health.
The Child Aid Association launched this programme in June this year. The association provides free of charge supply of medicines, meets expenses for special tests and equipment.
According to the association, last year it provided medicines to the hospital, mainly antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs, worth Rs5.97 million. The contribution increased to Rs 6.08 million in the last financial year. The steady increase was mainly attributable to the fact that the patients in the hospital had been acquiring infections by bacteria which were highly resistant to commonly used antibiotics.
The association then decided to take appropriate measures to control the hospital-based bacterial infections by improving hygiene and taking other measures against the situations where the bacteria could be transmitted.
The programme costing Rs1 million donated by Karachi-based philanthropists will last for one year. Special equipment for sanitary workers have been provided and training has been imparted to nurses and paramedical staff.
Initial lab results show marked drip in the pathogenic bacteria in all the wards of the NICH as well as a drop in the cross infection.
The association through donations has provided support to over 500 cancer patients and 13534 other poor patients.
