This archive report was first published on 19 September 2021.
On September 19, 2021, Jayesh Saini highlighted the significance of healthcare statistics in ensuring equitable service delivery. He noted that statistics cover a broad spectrum of issues that determine how governments and organizations operate.
According to Saini, reliable and authentic healthcare statistics are essential in determining where and how to invest, resource allocation, policy guidelines, and areas of intervention. He pointed out that most nations and organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), provide daily updates on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic, including various statistics such as infections by age, gender, severity, hospitalizations, deaths, recovered persons, and vaccination levels.
These statistics inform relevant authorities on mitigation factors, areas of intervention, and required resources. Despite the devastation caused by the virus, lessons learned have opened service providers to the reality of their situation. For instance, there is a better understanding of the number of beds in hospitals, the level of critical care facilities, and commensurate personnel in various levels of hospitals for better planning.
However, Saini noted that the data available is often localized and does not have a national outlook. He emphasized the need for real-time data on diseases detected, where they are, severity, mortalities due to them, medical interventions being used, effectiveness, resources being utilized or needed, including personnel and patterns of the diseases.
Jayesh Saini maintains that the government should have a central database that is fed by all health facilities with daily statistics. This would enable the government to keep abreast with disease and care patterns, appropriate resources accordingly, and detect outbreaks faster than when the news breaks.
It is a noteworthy suggestion that the government should consider and have stakeholders meeting on this very important aspect of healthcare.
