World Health Assembly adopts several health-improvement measures
In a series of news releases, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported several actions that transpired during the multi-day World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva, which concluded on Tuesday, May 28.
Among the resolutions, the Assembly will:
· Take steps to improve pricing transparency and access to medicines
· Implement ICD-11
· Expand patient safety initiatives
· Strengthen emergency care
· Fight antimicrobial resistance
Transparency & Access: WHO says the Assembly adopted measures to improve the transparency of markets for medicines, vaccines and other health products in an effort to expand access. The resolution urges member states to enhance public sharing of information on actual prices paid by governments and other buyers for health products, and greater transparency on pharmaceutical patents, clinical trial results and other determinants of pricing along the value chain from laboratory to patient.
Who says member states also expressed wide support for the WHO Access Roadmap for Medicines, Vaccines and other health products, which will determine the organization’s work on this issue for the next five years.
ICD-11: Member states also agreed to adopt the eleventh revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11), effective January 1, 2022.
“Understanding what makes people sick, and what eventually kills them, is at the core of mapping disease trends and epidemics, deciding how to program health services, allocate healthcare spending, and invest in improving therapies and prevention,” said WHOP in its statement. “ICD-11 is now fit for many uses, including clinical recording, primary care, patient safety, antimicrobial resistance, resource allocation, reimbursement, casemix, in addition to mortality and morbidity statistics.
ICD-11 has been updated for the 21st century and reflects critical advances in science and medicine. It can be well integrated with electronic health applications and information systems. This new version is fully electronic, allows more detail to be recorded and is significantly easier to use and to implement, which will lead to fewer mistakes and lower costs, and make the tool much more accessible, particularly for low-resource settings.
Patient safety: The Assembly which endorsed the establishment of an annual World Patient Safety Day on 17 September. The Assembly requested WHO to formulate a global patient safety action plan in consultation with countries and all relevant stakeholders, to improve and ensure patient safety globally.
Patient harm due to adverse events is one of the leading causes of death and disability globally, said WHO. An estimated 134 million adverse events occur annually due to unsafe care in hospitals in low- and middle-income countries, contributing to 2.6 million deaths, while 1 in 10 patients is estimated to be harmed while receiving hospital care in high-income countries.
Emergency care: Member States agreed to pave the way for better and faster services for time-sensitive health conditions, including injuries, heart attacks, mental health conditions, infections or pregnancy complications.
Member States stressed that timeliness is an essential component of quality care, and that millions of deaths and long-term disabilities could be prevented if emergency care services exist and patients reach them in time.
Steps agreed to strengthen countries’ emergency care include developing policies for sustainable funding, governance and universal access to emergency care for all, and integrating emergency care into health delivery and training strategies at all levels. Member States also embraced the use of the WHO emergency care system assessment to identify gaps and context-relevant priorities.
Antimicrobial resistance: The Assembly agreed on a resolution calling for continued high-level commitments to implement and adequately resource multi-sectoral National Action Plans to fight antimicrobial resistance. The resolution urges member states to strengthen infection prevention and control measures including water sanitation and hygiene; enhance participation in Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System; ensure prudent use of quality-assured antimicrobials; and support multisectoral annual self-assessment survey.
The measure calls WHO to maintain a list of Critically Important Antimicrobials for human medicine and keep member states informed of WHO’s work with the other members of the Tripartite (the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health) and UN agencies.
The resolution acknowledges the work of the Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance to provide practical guidance to enhance global action to address antimicrobial resistance and stresses the importance of addressing antimicrobial resistance to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
