During the past week Pharmabiz Hospital Review correspondents in seven major Indian cities went around to large hospitals asking a simple question: do you have an Infection Control Committee? The replies were astounding.
Out of 42 hospitals in Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Indore, Mumbai and Pune that our correspondents were able to visit, as many as six did not have an Infection Control Committee in place. Among the others, a majority have set up an infection only in the mid-1990s or later.
Several hospital chiefs said the committees existed but did not meet regularly, or play any significant role in the management of the hospital. "On account of some internal problems, we are not being able to conduct the functions of the ICC in the right way," said a staff member at Mumbai's H N Hospital.
Though the hospitals were selected at random without any effort to categorise them at the time of conducting the survey, one clear pattern did seem to emerge from it. The big names in the hospital industry such as Mallya Hospital and Wockhardt Heart Institute in Bangalore, Batra Hospital in New Delhi, Breach Candy, Jaslok and Hinduja in Mumbai do have an Infection Control Committee. They meet regularly, usually every month, and appear to keep a close eye on the crucial departments like the Operating Rooms and the Intensive Care Unit.
The second rung hospitals, however, do not have an organized system of infection system. Among these are: Lifeline Hospital and Gokuldas Hospital in Indore, Balananda Brahmachari Hospital in Kolkata, Sterling Hospital in Navi Mumbai, and Bangalore Hospital in Bangalore.
The 160-bed Balananda Brahmachari Hospital, which has been in existence for over 25 years, has no infection control committee, nor does its management have any plans for setting it up.
"Being a 33-bedded hospital, we do not think it to be necessary to set up a formal ICC," said Dr. Suresh Tekhchandani, chief of the pathology department of Navi Mumbai-based Sterling Hospital. In quite a few institutions, the chief executives were unaware that the WHO has set up a benchmark recommending hospitals to set up an infection control committee, which will discipline the staff towards controlling infection and reducing the infection rate.
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