African Partnerships for Patient Safety
The vision for the future of this programme both within Africa and internationally is exciting
APPS, in collaboration with WHO Regional Office for Africa, held its partnership implementation workshop for the first wave hospital partnerships in Kampala, Uganda from 20-23 October 2009. The workshop marked a major milestone in this new and exciting WHO Patient Safety programme. Six Partnership teams from each of the African, Swiss and English arms of the programme attended the workshop to work together to develop plans for implementation over the next two years. Key internal WHO staff and partners from the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) and Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET) also participated.
Workshop participants - October 2009
Good partnership working has led, I believe, to the development of a sound draft plan which can now be strengthened and implemented"
Each partnership hospital fed back findings from their patient safety situational analyses. Participants then had the opportunity to develop and refine their two-year plans and to gain technical support in key areas including infection control, community engagement, communications, patient safety amplification (scale-up). They were also oriented to a patient safety resource map and were able to trial a set of evaluation tools.
Official launch
On the final day of the workshop, the official launch of the six first wave APPS partnerships was held. Keynote addresses were given by representatives from the Ugandan Ministry of Health, the WHO Country Office and from the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) in England and Wales. Professor Didier Pittet, APPS Expert Lead, addressed the attendants and also relayed a personal message from Sir Liam Donaldson, Chair WHO Patient Safety. The launch included a ceremonial exchange of partnership plans between the African hospital teams and their European partners.
Professor Pittet and Dr Saweka
It was wonderful to meet and share experiences with colleagues from other countries. It was really morale boosting. The challenge is to keep the morale going.
The Workshop was for a change, and I am leaving as a changed person… the workshop was very timely for my community and country. People have lost their sense of safety under the pretext of poverty. Hand washing does not need much.
Moving forward
Key discussions and issues about available resources were addressed and individual support provided for each partnership to move forward. In 2010, APPS will channel its energies into delivering on the project plans developed by each partnership to improve patient safety.