Focus on giving quality care, improving safety of patients
Staff Reporter MUSCAT: World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) Third Global Patient Safety Challenge entitled ‘Medication without Harm in the East Mediterranean Region’ was launched by the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) yesterday.
The third global challenge aims to reduce the damage caused by unsafe practices and medication errors. It focuses on improving the safety of medication by strengthening the systems required for reducing errors.
During the launch, four hospitals were awarded the Patient Friendly Hospital Initiative award.
Dr. Rawya Al Busaidi, Minister of Higher Education and patron of the ceremony, honoured the hospitals that won the award.
“The participation of the educational institutions in this event will help students increase their awareness about globally accepted practices that are adopted to ensure patient safety and provide a high quality of healthcare services,” the minister said.
The winning hospitals are Nizwa Hospital, Al Rustaq Hospital, Starker Al Mawaleh Hospital and Al Refa’a Hospital, the Ministry of Health (MoH) announced.
The two-day event is organised by the MoH and the SQU, in collaboration with the WHO.
“The launch of this challenge coincides with the celebration of the First Annual World Patient Safety Day, which was based on the Sultanate’s proposal to the WHO. It has been approved to be held on September 17 every year,” Dr. Al Mandhari, DirectorGeneral of Quality at the MoH, remarked.
“The safety of patients revolves around reducing the risk of injury associated with healthcare,” said Dr. Mahmoud Fikri, WHO Regional Director.
“Studies have shown that 18 per cent of the admissions to hospitals in the region are linked to damage to patients, as a result of medical interventions,” Fikri noted.
“The cost of damages resulting from the unsafe use of medications is two billion dollars,” said Dr. Ahmed Al Mandhari.
“The World Health Organisation has set up a vision aiming to reduce the damages caused by the unsafe use of medications by 50 per cent in the next five years. Some 34 per cent of the adverse events are related to pharmaceu- tical and treatment errors. All of these can be prevented and avoided,” Al Mandhari stressed.
“The participating states have been invited today to sign a pledge committing themselves to work towards achieving the purposes of the third global challenge on patient safety,” Dr. Fikri said.
The WHO had launched two global challenges earlier. The first challenge was in 2005, and called “Clean Care is Safer Care”, while the second was in 2008m and entitled “Safe Surgery Saves Lives.”
This third challenge was launched by the WHO in Bonn, Germany, last March, with the participation of the Sultanate, represented by the Minister of Health.
During the meeting held in Bonn, the organisation chose the Sultanate to launch this challenge in the Eastern Mediterranean region, due to its superior reputation among international institutions.