To raise global awareness about patient’s safety and encourage global solidarity and action, for the first time, the Ministry of Health (MoH) will observe World Patient Safety Day on 17th of this month.
As part of the event, the Ministry of Health started off with a two-day Symposium on Patient’s Safety at the Institute of Management Studies Limited, Serbithang today.
At the inaugural session of the symposium on Patient’s Safety today, Health Secretary, Dr Ugen Dophu said patient’s safety is a global concern as the chance of error in the health sector across the globe stands at 10 per cent while the chance of errors in the airline industry is only 0.01 per cent. He added the health sector should set a target and bring down the chance of error to its minimal rate.
Over 100 doctors, nurses, technicians from across the country are attending the event. Such symposium is expected to help MoH come up with a set of key recommendations to improve patient’s safety in Bhutan.
“We will also discuss some sensitive but critical issues that are there within our system. A baby that died, the NICU cases, where have we gone wrong? I believe in learning from our mistakes so that we can make changes in our system,” said Dechen Wangmo, the Health Minister.
Along with the inaugural of the symposium today, the MoH will also conduct several other programmes to raise more awareness on patient safety.
The day will be celebrated in 8 health facilities across the country with poster presentations, mass cleaning activities, presentation on the overview of Global and National Patient Safety, importance, issues and challenges followed by national patient safety guidelines, Presentation on research findings, Sharing of opinion, views and experiences and Cultural programme and role play.
The National Memorial Chorten and Buddha point in Thimphu will also be lit up in orange to raise awareness about Patient Safety and patient safety Day.
Photo booth with the theme of the day will be placed at the National Memorial Chorten, Jigme Dorji Wangchuk National Referral Hospital and the venue of Biennial Health Conference (BHC) in Tsirang. People from all walks of life will be invited to take pictures with the frame and upload on their social media account.
The BHC will also be held in Tsirang from 17-20th September where the recommendations of the national symposium on patient safety will be presented.
Knowing the fact that patient safety is a serious global public health concern, The 72nd World Health Assembly which took place in Geneva, Switzerland this year, endorsed the establishment of World Patient Safety Day. Accordingly, 17 September will now be observed as the World Patient Safety Day worldwide every year.
Passang Dorji
