Patient safety is a serious global public health issue. There is now growing recognition amongst countries that patient safety is one of the core elements of quality health care, which, in turn, is a critical dimension of Universal Health Coverage. Many challenges of patient safety are attributed to overall health system weakness and are determined by broader public health policy and political and economic trends. Thus, improving patient safety requires system-wide approach and must be regarded as part of the overall health system strengthening efforts. To further step up the patient safety agenda in India, WHO Country Office for India and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India jointly organised the first meeting of the expert group on Developing Patient Safety Implementation Framework. The meeting took place on 1-2 September 2016 in New Delhi.
Patient safety agenda is not new for India. There is a multiplicity of fragmented initiatives as well as stakeholders with sometimes overlapping agendas that makes it imperative to bring them together to ensure a focused and cohesive approach. Patient safety strategies and interventions should not be regarded as stand-alone initiatives; instead they should be aligned with the overall health system goals and incorporated into the existing programmes to ensure improved quality of care.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr (Prof) Jagdish Prasad, Director General of Health Services, Government of India highlighted that establishment of the multi-stakeholder expert group is extremely important to bring all the initiatives and efforts under one roof. He emphasized the commitment of the MoHFW to bring patient safety agenda centre-stage and to the attention of different stakeholders and guide coordinated action.
The meeting brought together a wide range of stakeholders, including central and state governments, research organizations, healthcare providers from public and private sectors, international organizations, academia and civil society groups. The discussions revolved around translating global, regional and country commitments to improve quality of healthcare services in general and ensure patient safety, in particular, into actionable steps.
The sessions covered different aspects of patient safety, such as infection prevention and control and injections safety, accreditation and quality improvement programmes and patients for patients’ safety. There was a strong agreement that patient safety is everybody’s business and only by working together that India will be able to take the big leap forward and achieve sustainable results. In this context the Regional Strategy for patient safety in the WHO South-East Asia Region 2016-2025 and the commitments of the Member States to translate its objectives into actions at country level were also discussed.
The deliberations highlighted that patient safety is crucial to delivering quality health services. Failure to deliver safe care, in turn, might be attributed to unsafe clinical practices, such as unsafe surgery, poor hand hygiene practices, unsafe injections and medications. It was agreed that patient safety strategies should be aimed at strengthening all the components of the health system, ranging from investing in human resources for health; strengthening information systems; establishment of institutional mechanisms; strengthening of regulatory frameworks and accountability mechanisms, and introduction of innovative financial mechanisms. There was a consensus that improved patient safety and quality of care are essential in gaining trust of the population and is integral to progressing towards Universal Health Coverage.