Virtual Meeting | Achieving Sustainable WASH in Health Care: addressing COVID-19 and safe, quality care for all

? 21 May 2020 ?13.00 to 15.00 CET
Virtual Meeting

WHO and UNICEF, in collaboration with WaterAid and supported by a number of partner organizations including the International Council of Nurses and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, will host a two-hour virtual meeting. The meeting marks the one-year anniversary of the resolution approved at WHA72 on water, sanitation, and hygiene in health care facilities.

In the year since the resolution was approved by all Member States, the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged and affected every health system in the world. The crisis has brought the issue of WASH and its impact on the safety and quality of health care front and centre as part of the response. It has highlighted and reinforced the need to invest in the fundamentals if health care is to be safe and protect the vulnerable. Unfortunately, the crisis has also demonstrated the impact in terms of human suffering and lives lost where WASH is not in place.

Event Objectives:

• To consider how WASH in health care facilities can be hard-wired into the COVID-19 response and recovery efforts moving forward;
• To share country progress and discuss successes and bottlenecks regarding the implementation of the 2019 WHA Resolution. This will include a focus on empowering the health workforce, particularly nurses and midwives and how action to improve WASH in health-care facilities is supporting COVID-19 efforts;
• To engage WASH and health partner organizations and investment banks in strategizing on how to meet global targets for WASH in health-care facilities, using COVID-19 as an opportunity to sustainably improve WASH services;
• To spark further commitments, investment and increased accountability in achieving universal access to WASH in HCF aligned with the COVID-19 response and recovery funding.

Original source: WHO
Published on 19 May 2020