Heba Press
Minister of Health and Social Protection, Khaled Ait Taleb, confirmed today Tuesday in Rabat that modern digital technologies play an important and positive role in improving diagnosis and reducing medical errors, in order to ensure patient safety in the medical field.
Ait Taleb stressed, in a speech delivered at the National Symposium on Patient Safety, organized by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection in partnership with the World Health Organization in Rabat, in commemoration of World Patient Safety Day, under the slogan “Improving diagnosis, maintaining safety”, that this year’s theme is part of the Ministry’s vision to improve the quality of care while ensuring patient safety, adding that this meeting confirms the full commitment to the safety and well-being of citizens.
The minister said: “Patient safety is not just an ambition, but rather a moral and professional duty. For this reason, we must all understand that improving diagnostic safety is an important way to ensure patient safety,” stressing that “accurate and timely diagnosis is the key to effective treatment.”
He added that patient safety has been considered a major public health issue for decades and the World Health Organization is therefore constantly striving to improve patient safety, including through the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030, which aims to improve patient safety by reducing risks, errors and harms associated with healthcare.
Aït Taleb also stressed that the government has adopted structural measures to integrate the recommendations of this comprehensive plan into the Kingdom’s health policies, noting that a number of training programs have been launched for health care providers, with a focus on safe practices and continuous improvement of care processes, in addition to continuing to work on developing a national strategic plan for patient safety in partnership with the World Health Organization.
He also called for the establishment of robust clinical risk management systems and the continuous improvement of medical practices in order to meet citizens’ expectations, as well as the creation of regional health hubs, which constitute the fundamental pillar of a comprehensive reform aimed at strengthening integrated local services and governance based on efficiency and coordination, including the integration of new technologies.
For her part, the representative of the World Health Organization in Rabat, Maryam Bekdeli, stressed in a similar speech that the commemoration of World Patient Safety Day, launched by the Seventy-second World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization in 2019, is considered a cornerstone of efforts to promote global health and patient safety, capable of highlighting the essential role of patient safety in achieving universal health coverage.
On this occasion, Bekdili called on the World Health Organization to intensify efforts to reduce diagnostic errors through policies, strategies and multimedia interventions, by strengthening the capacities of human resources and the effective participation of patients, their families and professionals in the health field, adding that “ensuring the health safety of patients is the real challenge that must be worked on everywhere in the world.
The UN official stressed that estimates from the World Health Organization indicate that one in ten patients is exposed to an adverse event while receiving care in hospitals in high-income countries, while the number of adverse incidents is about 134 million events associated with risky care. It occurs in hospitals in low- and middle-income countries, contributing to recording about 2.6 million deaths per year, adding that the social cost of harm to patients can be estimated at between one thousand and two trillion dollars per year.
She highlighted that the Seventy-second World Health Assembly endorsed in 2021 the Global Action Plan for Patient Safety “2021-2030”, which aims to eliminate preventable harm in health care and involve patients, families and caregivers in effective participation in diagnosis, empowerment of health workers and others.
Bekdili took the opportunity to highlight the commitment of the World Health Organization to provide technical and financial support to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to develop and implement an integrated national strategic plan for patient safety.
It should be noted that, in parallel with this symposium, a national awareness campaign will be launched that will last four weeks, within the framework of the Global Action Plan for Patient Safety “2021-2023”, approved by the Seventy-second World Health Assembly in 2021. This campaign aims to increase the level of awareness and mobilize health professionals to take concrete measures to improve patient safety, while encouraging them to adopt behaviors that ensure their safety.
