World Health Organization has estimated that almost 10 per cent of patients get admitted in hospitals in developed countries suffer from unsafe healthcare practices followed in hospitals even with excellent facilities. Annually, millions of patients thus suffer from disabling injuries or death due to unsafe medical care and Hospital Acquired Infections throughout the world. Hospital-acquired infections are usually related to procedures or treatments used to diagnose or treat the patient's initial illness or injury. The most common types of hospital-acquired infections are urinary tract infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, and surgical wound infections. These infections develop from the performance of surgical procedures, from the insertion of catheters (tubes) into the urinary tract, nose, mouth, or blood vessels or from material from the nose or mouth that is inhaled into the lungs. Fever is often the first sign of infection. Other symptoms include rapid breathing, mental confusion, low blood pressure, reduced urine output, and a high white blood cell count. Patients with a UTI may have pain when urinating and blood in the urine. Symptoms of pneumonia may include difficulty in breathing and inability to cough. The Centre for Disease Control of the US Department of Health has found that about 36 per cent of these infections are preventable by adhering to strict guidelines by healthcare workers while attending to patients. What can make these infections so troublesome is that they occur in people whose health is already compromised by the condition for which they are first hospitalized.
In India, no serious efforts have been made by either the hospital authorities or Union health ministry to assess the extend of hospital acquired infections and take measures to address it. Several thousands of people must be dying or getting infected from the extremely poor healthcare practices followed by most public hospitals and small private nursing homes in different parts of the country. Currently, there is no comprehensive data available on the subject from any public or private hospitals in the country. The magnitude of health burden caused by HAI remains rather unknown in India and most developing countries mainly due to the limitations of surveillance mechanisms, infrastructure, technology and resources. The matter has, however, caught attention of the health ministry of late. The launching of National Initiative for Patient Safety (NIPS) by Department of Hospital Administration of All India Institute of Medical Sciences is a good beginning in this direction. The stated objective of this initiative is to assess the current shortfall in patient safety and assist hospitals to take preventive steps in this regard. For making this initiative a success what is primarily required is the support and cooperation of hospital managements. How that can be achieved is a tough question to answer. The managements need to be convinced to educate and train nurses, paramedical staff and doctors on the infection control in their premises as a fist step in this direction.