Patient-friendly hospital initiative launched at SQH
A patient-friendly initiative was launched at Sultan Qaboos Hospital (SQH) on Wednesday to give everyone a feeling that the patients are central to the healthcare institutions. The idea of the initiative is to create awareness among the hospital staff that the patients should not only be treated well, they should have a feeling that they are treated well.
The initiative was launched under the auspices of Shaikh Abdullah bin Aqeel al Ibrahim, acting Deputy Governor of Dhofar. Present on the occasion were a number of officials of the Ministry of Health and government institutions in Dhofar Governorate.
Dr Khalid bin Mohammed al Mashaikhi, Director-General of Health Services in Dhofar, exhorted the hospital staff to have a passionate feeling for the patients and hailed the event organisers for their commitment to a right cause. “This initiative is in line with the guidelines of World Health Organisation to bring about a qualitative change in the healthcare sector,” he said.
Dr Ahmed bin Salem al Manthari, Director General of the Quality Assurance Center at the Ministry of Health, spoke about the patient safety hospital initiatives, how it was implemented, its standards and the stages of its establishment. He dwelt upon the steps to improve the quality of performance by training health workers and building their capacities and honing their skills in this field.
A health exhibition was also organised on the sidelines of the event, which included health and educational pamphlets and other information related to patient safety in health institutions. The departments of Quality and Patients Safety, Pharmacy and Health Education took active part in the exhibition.
The ‘Patient safety hospital initiative’ is one of the initiatives of the WHO, which is aimed at assisting institutions within countries to initiate a programme of reference for patients’ safety and self-improvement as well as the establishment of a patient safety programmes at the hospital level. Capacity building for patient safety and beneficiary involvement of the service in improving the safety of healthcare are parts of this initiative.