Muscat: The Ministry of Health (MOH) represented by the Directorate General of Quality Assurance Centre (DGQAC) is hosting a virtual Training of Trainers (TOT) workshop on the Implementation of the WHO Patient Safety Friendly Initiative (PSFHI) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), Oman Office and with technical support from WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) during the period 5th – 9th July 2020.
The PSFHI is a WHO-led initiative that encourages safe health practices in health care facilities as a core element of services provided. The initiative provides a comprehensive set of standards and a framework through which hospitals can deliver safer patient care. It assesses hospitals’ performance from a patient safety perspective, builds capacities of staff in patient safety and actively integrates patients and communities in improving health care safety.
Since 2016, Oman has invested considerably in implementing patient safety standards in a large proportion of its health care settings. In August 2018, the Centre for Quality Assurance (CQA), the Ministry of Health of the Sultanate of Oman was designated as WHO Collaborating Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Training, the result of tireless work over the past years to improve quality of care and patient safety.
“We strive to embed patient safety at the heart of health care delivery; lessons are learned and efforts have been exerted, but more is needed to reach our set targets,” says Dr Qamra Al Sariri, Director General of Quality Assurance Centre. She also added, “We are proud of where we are today and excited about where we are heading in terms of patients safety initiatives”.
The workshop aims to train healthcare professionals on the recent updates made on the third version of the Patient Safety Assessment Manual. Furthermore, it aims to enhance health care professionals’ skills in surveying hospitals guided by the updated manual. The standards being covered during the training are a large array of measures, spanning from leadership to environment to life-long learning measures.
The work in Oman presents a model for countries around the world in developing sustainable systems and culture for patient safety and quality of care. “Oman has demonstrated significant achievements towards improving patient safety and quality of care nationally while making substantial contributions to the regional patient safety movement,” says Dr. Jaffar Hussain, Acting WHO Representative to the Sultanate of Oman.
The training will be attended by 31 participants from Oman and 9 from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, facilitated by five international and two national speakers. The trainers include experts from, WHO, Oman MOH and various bodies namely Canadian Patient Safety Institute, the Quality & Accreditation Institute of India and Ireland Quality Improvement Team.
The workshop methodology employs sound technological means and comprises presentations, and topic-specific breakout sessions. WHO engagement through its Oman Country Office and EM Regional Office aims to further promote knowledge transfer and later replication of similar workshops to other member states.
Dr. Mondher Lataief, Regional Advisor for Quality and Safety in EMRO, expressed his aspirations to see patient safety standards being adopted and institutionalized within all health care systems throughout the countries of the Region. “I hope this third edition of the Patient Safety Assessment Manual, together with the updated patient safety improvement tool kit, will add a valuable reference and provide needed technical support to Oman in building the technical capacity of its staff”.
