Each service provider of COVID-19 facilities needs to be oriented on WASH and COVID-19 compliances
IIHMR University partnered with UNICEF Madhya Pradesh to host a webinar on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) protocols and bio-medical waste. Around 500 professionals from eight districts of Madhya Pradesh attended the webinar, including more than 200 doctors, 150 nurses, and 65 allied healthcare professionals. Universal, affordable, and sustainable access to WASH is a key public health issue and focuses on Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6).
Madhya Pradesh has designated 25 Dedicated COVID-19 Hospitals (DCH), 75 Dedicated COVID Health Centres (DCHC), and 428 COVID Care Centre (CHC) to ensure screening and treatment of the COVID-19 patients. Each service provider of these health facilities needs to be oriented on WASH and COVID-19 compliances.
Trainers from the School of Development Studies, IIHMR University, Jaipur, supported by UNICEF, oriented doctors, medical officers in-charge and health service providers in eight districts of Madhya Pradesh, focusing on the relation between WASH and COVID-19, how to conduct an assessment, and planning at the institutional level.
Dr Goutam Sadhu, Hemant Kumar Mishra, Veena Nair Sarkar, Faculty members from IIHMR University and Rakesh Kumar, Parvinder Sharma acted as resource persons in these training programmes.
Expert sessions were conducted by Pankaj Mathur, and his team from UNICEF Madhya Pradesh and Dr Pankaj Shukla, Joint Director, State Quality Assurance Cell (SQAC) and Bhagwan Singh Rathore, National Health Mission, Madhya Pradesh.