Promoting health worker safety;a priority for patient safety during covid-19 pandemic and beyond

Background: As per World Health Organization, health workers accounted for over 1 4 million COVID-19 infections globally This paper attempts to identify key risk factors for health worker infections in India, describe its impact on their wellbeing and the health systems, and derive lessons from other country experiences, that could be adapted to Indian context for strengthening health workers safety and preparing health systems for future waves Methods: A systematic review of existing published articles, government and media reports was undertaken Online databases-MEDLINE, EMBASE, PUBMED and Google Scholar were searched using key terms related to COVID-19 infections in health workers Thirty-four papers were included dependent on their relevance to research objectives Conclusions: The key risk factors for health workers infection were;unsafe exposure to patients infected with COVID-19, lack of adequate personal protective equipment, and suboptimal infection prevention and control measures and compliance Health workers infection has impacted their health and psychosocial wellbeing and diminished healthcare system capacity to provide safe and effective healthcare Safeguarding the health workers is critical, and requires multifaceted approach for strengthening infection prevention and control measures and supplies, strategic workforce planning, dedicated policies and capacity building interventions