Oman to launch 3rd Global Patient Safety Challenge

Muscat: The Sultanate, represented by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), will launch WHO’s “Third Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication without Harm” at SQU on Sunday.
A celebration will be held under the patronage of Dr. Rawya bint Saud Al Busaidiyah, Minister of Higher Education, in the presence of a number of ministers and undersecretaries.
Senior officials of the ministries of health and national focal points for patient safety and medication safety will participate in the event, along with representatives from related institutions and agencies at the regional and national levels, as well as the hospital level. WHO’s global challenges on patient safety are primary programmes that aim to introduce improvements in health systems and thereby, reduce risks and harm resulting from the delivery of health services. In this regard, WHO had earlier launched two global challenges.
The first challenge was in 2005 and was called “Clean Care is Safer Care” and the second one was in 2008 was called “Safe Surgery Saves Lives.” The third challenge was officially launched by WHO in Bonn, Germany last March with the participation of the Sultanate, represented by the Minister of Health.
During the meeting held in Bonn, WHO had chosen the Sultanate to launch this challenge in the Eastern Mediterranean region due to its good reputation among international institutions. This meeting is the first launch for this challenge in WHO’s six regions.
The third global challenge aims to reduce the harm caused by unsafe practices and medication errors. It focuses on improving the safety of medication by strengthening the systems required for reducing such errors.
Launching this challenge coincides with the celebration of the First Annual World Patient Safety Day that was allocated based on the Sultanate’s proposal to WHO, which was recently approved for September 17 each year.
The launch ceremony will include honouring the health institutions that participated in the WHO Patient Safety Friendly Hospital Initiative (PSFHI), namely in the Nizwa, A’Rustaq, Starcare and Riffah hospitals.
MoH had launched the PSFHI initiative in 2016 and developed a plan to cover all public and private hospitals in the Sultanate till the end of 2018.