推动医疗保健影响情况说明书

The pathway between health facilityelectrification and improved health outcomes Electricity underpins nearly every aspect of awell-functioning health facility(including bloodbanks, laboratories, and pharmacies), making itvital to delivering quality health care The Energy Access– Healthcare Nexus MEDICAL SERVICES AND LIGHTING FACILITY OPERATIONS AND SAFETY Access to electricity helps extend a facility’s hours ofoperation, which allows medical staff to see a greaternumber of patients in a dayand provide 24-houremergency medical services. When facilities withoutelectricity do see patients after dark, they often donot have access to many medical devices or lightinganddependonparaffinlamps,candlesortorchesthat provide low quality light, give off harmful fumesand,insomecases,actasfirehazards. Adequate lighting allows health workers to moresafely carry out deliveries, emergency obstetriccare and other medical procedures. For example,with sufficient lighting,doctorsandmidwivescanmore easily identify and treat hemorrhaging, whichis the leading cause of the 289,000 deaths that occurevery year from pregnancy- and childbirth-relatedcomplications (World Bank, 2014). MEDICAL COLD CHAIN E-HEALTH Access to reliable electricity is essential forrefrigerating vaccines, which save millions of liveseach year. The need for cold storage space isexpected to rise eightfold in the coming decadesastheneedtopreventorfightnon-communicablediseases through vaccines requires complexinterventions that demand additional energyrequirements. Electricity facilitates mobile and telehealthapplications, which can improve diagnosis andtriage through virtual services. With internet andcommunication technologies powered with energyaccess, clinic staff can better communicate inemergency situations, operate and maintain thefacility, and track patient records. HEALTH WORKER SATISFACTION WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE Health facilities that have access to electricity arebetter positioned to attract and retain skilled healthworkers, especially in rural areas, where amenitiessuch as lighting, cooling, entertainment, andcommunications in staff quarters are highly valued. Electricityenableswaterpumpingandpurification,which are critical to providing adequate water,sanitation and hygiene services and helping preventand contain infections and disease outbreaks. The Challenge Despite its importance, power is unavailable or unreliable in manyrural health facilities across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia Itis estimated that tens of thousands of health centersacross low- and middle-income countries are notconnected to the grid and lack electricity, thoughnocomprehensivecentral inventoryon the stateof electricity in health facilities currentlyexists.Theprevalence of a lack of reliable energy is especiallyhigh in Sub-Saharan Africa, where aboutone in fourhealth facilities in 11 countries has no access toelectricity, and only about one-third of hospitals havereliable electricity access. When health facilities lackaccesstoadequateandreliablepower,itjeopardizesthe health of hundreds of millions of people, especiallywomen and children who often bear the brunt ofinadequate primary health services. 70% of medical devices in theglobal south do not functionandremain unused; nearly a third ofequipment failures aredue topower supply problems (WHO, 2010) This lack of access to power stems from the fact thatmany health facilities – particularly those offeringprimary or community-level services – are in remoteareas,characterizedbylowenergydemandandvirtually no access to the electricity grid. Cash-crunchedgovernmentsandutilitiesfinditdifficulttojustify grid extension to these areas, where revenuesare low and the cost of building and maintaininginfrastructure is high. Almost60% of health carefacilitiesin 46 low and middleincome countries were found tohave unreliable powerin a studyanalyzing over 121,000 facilities (Cronk et al., 2018) The Solution Distributed clean energy and efficient medical appliancesprovide a fast and cost-effective way to power health facilities The conventional means of electrifying communitiesbygridextensionwillnotbesufficienttomeetSDG7.With a continuation of current policies, 660 millionpeople will be left without electricity in 2030. A study in Bangladesh revealed that the amount spenton diesel fuel in a year to power a backup generatorcould be used to fund a nurse for six months. In this context, off-grid solar offers the least-costoption for powering remote off-grid health facilitiesin most rural areas, especially compared with gridextension and diesel engines. This is thanks to recentcost-declines in solar and battery technology; thepriceofbatterieshasdropped73%(BNEF,2017) whilethatofPVmoduleshasdecreasedbymorethan80%since 2009 (IRENA, 2019). When coupled with energy-efficientmedicalequipment,thecostofoff-gridsolarsolutionscanbereducedbyanadditional25%(WHO,2014). Furthermore, being connected to the grid does notalways guara