Health facilities: 40% meet basic sanitation, UN says

Only four in 10 healthcare facilities worldwide met basic sanitation standards last year, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said Tuesday, while 11% had no sanitation services at all.

The UN agencies said their report provided the first global estimates of basic sanitation services in healthcare settings. Basic sanitation required usable toilets, including at least one toilet for staff, at least one sex-separated toilet with menstrual hygiene facilities and at least one toilet accessible for people with limited mobility.

The estimates, based on data from 70 countries, found wide regional gaps. The report said 23% of healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan Africa provided basic sanitation services, compared with 55% in central and southern Asia.

WHO and UNICEF said more than one in 10 health facilities globally had no sanitation service, affecting facilities serving 936 million people.

The report also estimated that 85% of healthcare facilities had basic water services, 72% had basic hygiene services and 71% had basic healthcare waste management services last year.

For environmental cleaning, 59% of facilities met basic standards requiring both cleaning protocols and trained cleaning staff. The report said 18% of facilities, serving about 1.5 billion people, met neither requirement. In the world's least-developed countries, 24% of facilities met the environmental cleaning standard.