Health Policy

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Browsing Health Policy by Author "World Health Organisation"

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    Patient safety tool kit
    (World Health Organisation, 2015-01-01) World Health Organisation
    Patient safety is considered a priority for health systems worldwide. In the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, available data show that, on average, health care-related harmful incidents affect 8 in 100 patients, and 4 out of 5 incidents are preventable. In 2011, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean published the Patient safety assessment manual as part of the WHO patient safety friendly hospital initiative. It aims to assess the level of compliance against a set of evidence-based standards covering the various domains of patient safety at the hospital level. Since the manual was published efforts have been made by local teams for the expansion and ownership of this initiative as a tool that enables them to understand and assess the level of safety in their health care institutions. A second edition of the manual is currently in preparation. This new publication, Patient safety tool kit, builds on the growing regional need to develop the capacities of health professionals with regard to developing a patient safety improvement programme at the operational level and implementing corrective measures, adapted to local settings. Universal health coverage has been proposed as a goal for health in the next round of global development priorities post-2015. The bottom line is that simply expanding access will not be enough unless we simultaneously ensure that the care provided is of sufficiently high quality, where safety should be one of its core dimensions. Improving patient safety and reducing the burden of unsafe care must continue to be an important priority for all the health care systems in the Region. I encourage ministries of health, as well as academic institutions and professional associations to own and make use of the Patient safety tool kit.
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    Regional strategy for patient safety in the WHO South-East Asia Region (2016–2025)
    (World Health Organisation, 2015-01-01) World Health Organisation
    The quality and safety of health care is a major concern of ministries of health in the South-East Asia Region. Governments are responsible for ensuring health services are safe and of good quality. Patient safety is an essential aspect of health-care quality. It includes preventing medical errors that may lead to adverse events and harm. The safety of the patient has to be kept in mind for all types of care and at all levels of care. As new health interventions have become more complex, the risk and potential for harm has increased. Evidence shows that harm to patients is almost always a result not of failures of an individual health-care provider alone, but of a chain of failures in a health-care organization’s operations as a whole. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that a systems approach to patient safety is adopted. Ensuring the quality and safety of health care is an enormous challenge for frontline health workers, health facility managers and ministries of health responsible for policy and regulatory frameworks. Towards this end, governments in Member States are adopting a range of policies, strategies and methods to improve patient safety, including strengthening related legislation and regulations. Patient safety has been recognized as a growing international public health problem since 2002, when the World Alliance for Patient Safety was formed. In 2006, the Regional Committee of South-East Asia Region endorsed a resolution on patient safety. The World Health Organization has developed guidelines, checklists and programmes to ensure quality and safety of health care and minimize health care-acquired infections, antimicrobial resistance and medical mismanagement as well as reduce hazards from clinical and biological waste. These can be used by Member States in their efforts to improve patient safety. The need for national patient safety strategies has also been emphasized. To support the development of national patient safety strategies within the Region, an ad-hoc expert working group has developed this regional strategy. This has been endorsed by all Member States. It sets out six clear objectives that provide guidance for improving the quality and safety of health care in our Region.