Major focus areas in the next decade would be on patient safety and care: Dr PR Sodani

Dr P R Sodani, President (Officiating), IIHMR University, Jaipur

As the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to unfold, differentiated effects are becoming clear. Even though we do not yet know how the pandemic will play out over the coming year (s) in the next decade 2021-2030. It is now very clear that it is much more than a health crisis. Its impacts and complexities are multi-dimensional, and present wide-ranging social, economic, and environmental challenges for countries and communities all around the world. The pandemic has challenged us to think differently.

The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing strengths as well as weaknesses within our societies, government structures, and private sector, calling for serious thinking to chart our way forward for a larger societal welfare. For the next decade, we have to place it at the center of efforts to design sustainable solutions and build back better.

The COVID-19 pandemic has added further challenges for making progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Poverty, hunger, and inequalities have increased around the world. Economic growth has also moved in reverse. The SDGs acknowledge interdependencies among multiple sectors. An effective response to COVID-19 needs to be coordinated and multi-dimensional, reflecting the relevance of the SDGs in building sustainable and resilient societies. We need to identify ways in which the global community can collaborate to achieve the SDGs in the challenges we now face.

The global healthcare landscape has been changing ever since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. Promoting universal access to health care and services, as well as ensuring well- zero patient harm with high reliable systems and processes in place. There would be a clear focus on how healthcare workers should be given skill-based training and education for better operations of patient safety and care in a hospital setting as well as in community-based outreach-setting. Communities and patients (would be patients) have realised and recognised the use of digital technology for being health well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. The major focus areas in the next decade between 2021-2030 would be on patient safety and care.  Health policy should be formulated with strategic directions towards patient safety and care.

Technology use would be on the next level to provide quality, and affordable health care services. The advent of technologies like 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and hybrid cloud will shape the future of infrastructure in health, education and all commercial sectors. It has yielded possibilities for building infrastructure that is cheaper to use, and more responsive to varying user-requirements.

Collaborations and partnership on knowledge exchange would enhance between countries for better health outcomes. The role of government is prime for enhancing collaborations between public and private sectors. The world would have been more resilient and better prepared to respond to the challenges posed by the global health emergency.

Governance systems that are guided by a whole-of-society approach and adopt inclusive, participatory, and partnership decision-making processes are needed to respond effectively to the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic. Only a holistic response that is based on cross-sectoral collaboration at all levels of society can build adaptive capacity to respond to the immediate and long-term effects of COVID-19.

In India, multi-stakeholder collaboration and new form of cooperation, including with the scientific community, civil society, and the private sector at national and local levels is essential. Local governments are on the frontlines of responding to the pandemic, and their capacity to enable an effective response to, and recovery from, COVID will be essential. Efforts are required to localise the SDGs are therefore more relevant than ever. Rising inequalities and the disproportionate impact on groups such as older persons, women, youth, children, persons with disabilities, and informal workers call for a people-centered, inclusive, and human rights-based approach to the COVID-19 recovery.