A Consolidated Reply prepared by the Maternal and Child Health Community was sent to a network of medical practitioners and has helped raise awareness among service providers on laparoscopic sterilization.

During laparoscopic sterilization, the mainstay of India’s family welfare program, aseptic procedures have to be maintained to safeguard patients from Hepatitis, HIV and other infections. The government guidelines outline the required aseptic procedures for equipment, however, in practice, some centres conduct operations using without adequate sterilization. A member of the Maternal and Child Health Community posed a query on how safety and sterilization standards can be maintained and requested documented studies assessing cases of infections caused as a result of unsafe procedures.

The responses covered issues of quality of care, especially in large-scale sterilization camps, given the challenges to maintaining quality during camps. Members outlined several steps to maintain standards including periodically updating of Standards for Female and Male Sterilization Services; organizing regional workshops to disseminate standards; training doctors to perform sterilizations; increasing the amount of cash assistance per sterilization case given to doctors; and finalizing the Quality Assurance Manual for Sterilization Services to monitor adherence with the Standards. The query poser is now using points raised during the discussion, to help in raising the awareness of service providers by sending the Consolidated Reply to a network of medical practitioners and also to the Health Commissioner of Gujarat.