To improve every healthcare, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has launched a National Patient Safety and Care Quality Policy and Implementation Strategy 2024, NPCQPIS, to ensure quality healthcare service delivery in Nigeria.
The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Daju Kachollom, who represented the coordinating minister of health and social welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, said during the occasion marking 2024 World Patient Safety Day in Abuja that it was imperative to ensure no harm is done to patients who seek healthcare services in government facilities.
Pate said Nigeria must get it right to make it safe, adding that World Patient Safety Day is an opportunity to raise public awareness and foster collaboration between patients, health workers, policymakers and healthcare leaders to improve patient safety.
Also speaking, the Director of Hospital Services, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Jimoh Salaudeen, said this year’s theme is “Improving diagnosis for patient safety” with the slogan “Get it right, make it safe!” highlighting the critical importance of correct and timely diagnosis in ensuring patient safety and improving health outcomes, he said diagnosis identifies a patient’s health problem and is key to accessing the care and treatment they need.
The theme for this year’s World Patient Safety Day is focused on improving diagnosis for patient safety, using the slogan “Get it right, make it safe!” a great opportunity for patients and families, health workers, healthcare leaders, policymakers and civil society to emphasise the pivotal role of correct and timely diagnosis in improving patient safety.
He explained that a diagnostic error is a failure to establish a correct and timely explanation of a patient’s health problem, including delayed, incorrect, or missed diagnoses or a failure to communicate that explanation to the patient.
Hence, diagnostic safety can be significantly improved by addressing the systems-based issues and cognitive factors leading to diagnostic errors. Systemic factors are organisational vulnerabilities predisposing to diagnostic errors, including communication failures between health workers and patients, heavy workloads, and ineffective teamwork. He explained that cognitive factors involve clinician training and experience as well as predisposition to biases, fatigue and stress.
He, therefore, expressed optimism that the launching of the first ‘Patient Safety and Care Quality Policy & Implementation Strategy’ is a significant milestone in our efforts to improve the quality of healthcare services in Nigeria as this prominence to diagnostic safety in patient safety policy and clinical practice at all levels of health care, aligned with the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030.
In the same vein, the deputy vice chancellor of Academics and co-chair for developing Nigeria’s safety policy, prof. Stephen Abah said this initiative is a significant step towards improving Nigeria’s healthcare system.
“I’m thrilled to announce that we’re launching a comprehensive document that’s not just a policy but also a strategy and implementation plan. This milestone directly responds to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 1999 resolution and 2021 global action plan for patient safety.
“Our goal is to build a culture prioritising patient care, ensuring every patient receives the best possible treatment. To achieve this, we must focus on developing skilled healthcare professionals who put patients first. This means training health workers in a culture that values patient-centred care, effective communication, and rigorous safety standards”.
He informed that patient safety minimises harm, ensures suitable medications and procedures, implements robust measures to prevent infections, and establishes simple, pilot-style checklists for every procedure and training by integrating patient safety into medical curricula, starting from 200-level.
“In my university, we’re innovating ways to incorporate WHO’s global patient safety action plan into our community medicine curriculum. By doing so, we’re cultivating a new generation of physicians who prioritise patient care and safety”, he said.