The ‘Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool’ outlines a series of practical tasks that healthcare facility managers can undertake to improve quality of care through WASH facilities.
The guide comes with templates to help conduct activities such as sanitary inspection and evaluation.
7 March 2019: The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have reissued their 2017 guide for improving the quality of hospitals and clinics through better water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities. The guide is available in four UN languages, and is intended to support countries’ efforts to improve infrastructure and services for WASH and waste management in healthcare in low- and middle-income countries.
The foreword to the guide states that achieving universal healthcare (SDG target 3.8) may be “an empty promise” unless there is also adequate attention to WASH (SDG targets 6.1 and 6.2), without which both healthcare providers and their clients risk infection and disease.
Initially produced in 2017 and revised in 2018, the guide is now available in Arabic, English, French, and Spanish.
The guide titled, ‘Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH FIT): A Practical Guide for Improving Quality of Care Through Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Health Care Facilities,’ outlines a series of practical tasks that healthcare facility managers can undertake. The task sequence involves: assembling a WASH FIT team and holding regular meetings; conducting an assessment of the healthcare facility; carrying out a hazard and risk assessment; developing an improvement plan; and monitoring of implementation. The guide comes with templates to help conduct activities such as sanitary inspection and evaluation. [Publication: Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool] [UN-Water Press Release]