Qatar marks World Patient Safety Day

Doha, Qatar: Qatar has made remarkable progress in patient safety over recent years and joined the global healthcare community in celebrating World Pa...

Doha, Qatar: Qatar has made remarkable progress in patient safety over recent years and joined the global healthcare community in celebrating World Patient Safety Day yesterday.

It coincided with the 10th Qatar Patient Safety Week, and the Ministry of Public Health opened a three day conference under the theme ‘Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety.’ 

The three-day conference focuses on the importance of timely and accurate diagnoses for improving patient safety. It emphasises integrating diagnostic safety into patient safety policies at all healthcare levels, aligning with national and global action plans.  “We are marking World Patient Safety Day, which is September 17 as part of our local Patient Safety Week, and we align with the theme [Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety] that is announced by the World Health Organization. This theme is important due to the high percentage of errors happening due to wrong diagnosis, delayed diagnosis or even not being diagnosed that affect the patient outcome across healthcare systems,” said the lead of the National Patient Safety Programme at the Minister of Public Health, Dr. Shimous Mohammad, speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the event held in Doha.

Referring to the state of patient safety in Qatar, she said, “We are really moving in a very strong and fast direction, and Qatar has been really developing since the first National Health Strategy and now we recently launched the third National Health Strategy, in which one of the pillars is patient-centered care and patient experience.”