National Policy on Patients’ Safety and Care Quality: Another Pate’s Feat
By Lawal Dahiru Mamman
More often than not, health workers request for patients’ history among other things, before running diagnosis which will enable them make informed decisions on the suitable course of treatment. By implication, patients and family are directly involved in healthcare.
Four years ago, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognised this significant supportive role at its 72nd World Health Assembly, through the adoption of resolution WHA72.6 – “Global action on patient safety” in 2019. It also set aside 17 September to annually commemorate the ‘World Patient Safety Day’, following the annual Global Ministerial Summits on Patient Safety, which started in London in 2016.
Every year, the World Patient Safety Day focuses on a specific theme to promote discussions around patient safety, and address challenges to safe healthcare practices.
The objective of the maiden World Patient Safety Day was to raise global awareness about patient safety with the theme ‘Patient Safety: a global health priority’. It was meant to promote open communication for learning from errors and to emphasise the importance of patient safety. The slogan was “Speak up for patient safety!” “No one should be harmed in healthcare.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 with health workers at the battle front as invisible soldiers, the occasion that year was themed, “Health Worker Safety: A Priority for Patient Safety” because for patients to safe, health workers must be hence, the slogan, “Safe health workers, Safe patients.”
The theme of the World Patient Safety Day 2021 was “Safe maternal and newborn care”. The theme highlighted that it is possible to avoid stillbirth, maternal and newborn deaths through the provision of safe and quality care with the help of skilled professionals working in supportive environments which can be achieved by the engagement of all stakeholders and acquiring comprehensive health systems and community-based approaches.
For 2022, it was based on medication and related complications. The year’s Safety Day focused on ‘Medication Safety’ along with the slogan ‘Medication Without Harm’, with a call to action to ‘Know, Check and Ask’, due to the fact that medication errors and unsafe medication practices can lead to severe patient harm, disabilities, and deaths
Engaging Patients for Patient Safety is the theme of this year’s campaign. Considering all these efforts, WHO still reports that three million (3,000,000) patients die because of unsafe health care in hospitals, emergency care, primary care, pharmacies, and nursing homes.
Nigeria though has participated in this global campaign as a WHO member state, it has only for the first time designed a National Policy and Implementation Strategy on Patients Safety and Care Quality to enhance the quality of healthcare delivery and promote patient safety best practices.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Daju Kachollom, made the announcement at a press briefing on Monday 18 September to commemorate the 2023 World Patient Safety Day.
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Daju, said the National Patient Safety and Care Quality was in line with the Resolution 18 of the 55th World Health Assembly (WHA 55.18) which called for Member States to acknowledge the burden of patient safety and set up policies to manage them.
She further explained that the National Policy focuses on improving patient and family engagement in health care, medication safety, surgical safety, infection prevention and control as well as safety of all medical procedures amongst others.
The Permanent Secretary, emphasised that patient safety fundamentally entails preventing errors and minimising harm to patients during provision of healthcare services saying that this year’s theme placed an importance on the pivotal role of patients not just as passive recipients of healthcare but active participants.
According to her, empowering patients to become members of their healthcare teams was a crucial avenue to significantly enhancing the safety of their care and the healthcare system as a whole.
“Under the banner “Elevate the voice of patients!” the World Health Organisation (WHO) calls upon all stakeholders to take the necessary steps to ensure that patients are not just passive recipients of healthcare but active participants.
“This includes involving them in policy formulation, representation in governance structures, co-designing safety, and making them partners in their own care”.
Speaking further, Daju reiterated the Ministry’s commitment to providing safer and higher-quality health services to Nigerians. She said that they will holistically approach healthcare challenges through its four-point agenda on improving quality of health, population health outcomes; medical industrialisation and improving health security.
She called on patient advocacy groups, donors and development partners, State Ministries of Health, Heads of healthcare facilities, Educational and Research Institutions as well as regulatory and professional bodies to work hand in hand with government towards ensuring that the voices of patients are heard and their concerns promptly addressed in order to elevate the standard of healthcare in Nigeria.
Dr. Moeti Matshidiso, WHO African Regional Director, said that the need to involve patients in their care cannot be over emphasised, adding that evidence shows that patient engagement reduces health care errors and costs, and improves health outcomes, health care delivery and quality of care and life.
“More than 50% of the harm that patients experience is preventable if concerted efforts and requisite investment are done. At WHO and with our partners, we establish mechanisms to steer and coordinate efforts, build required capacity and networks for all aspects of patient safety, including patient engagement, and provide guidance documents and tools for empowering patients and families,” he said.
He congratulated the Ministry of Health for its progress in developing the National Quality Policies and Strategies (NQPS) as more than 50% of the harm that patients experience is preventable if concerted efforts and requisite investment are done.
Few weeks ago, the Ministers of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate and Dr. Tunji Alausa said that part of their transformation plan for the health sector is to improve the nation’s population health outcome. And with the National Policy and Implementation Strategy on Patients’ Safety and Care Quality, there couldn’t have been a deliberate measure to fast-track their developmental plan for Nigeria’s healthcare sub-sector.
