We often observe that people complaint regarding negligence of doctors, leading to demise of their loved-ones, thereby raising a question over the efficiency and working of the medical faculty. A doctor is considered as next to the God as he relieves a patient from several deadly ailments besides making him fit and healthy to live a happy life. The government is also trying hard to ensure safety of all patients, under treatment, by several initiatives. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt of India observes ‘Patient Safety Day’ 0n September 17 every year. This year the theme of the Patient Safety Day was ‘Medication without Harm’. For creating, awareness on patient safety issues among field-level functionaries, MoHFW has organised a week-long ‘Rogi Kalyan Saptaah’ from the 12th – 17th September, wherein all the states, districts, and healthcare facilities organised a series of activities to improve the safety of the healthcare system for everyone including patients and service providers. At the national level, in a function held on September 16, 2022, Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary released a self-assessment tool, ‘SaQushal- Patient Safety Self-Assessment Tool’ under the existing National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) and also administered the Patient Safety Pledge. The tools have been developed by QPS Division, NHSRC in collaboration with the subject matter experts. The tools would enable the health facilities for self-assessment in matrix of safety and help them to reduce errors.
In his address, the Health Secretary emphasised different steps taken by the Government of India to ensure quality and patient safety at public healthcare facilities. He urged the states to undertake baseline assessment of all health facilities and develop a roadmap for having maximum number of health facilities, as NQAS certified. The launch event was followed by national webinar, wherein eminent speakers spoke on multiple facets of patient safety, including medication safety. A series of webinars have been planned over next two days. The first Webinar was inaugurated by Prof (Dr) Atul Goel, Director General of Health Services. The launch event and webinar attracted a large audience with over 850 healthcare professionals from public and private institutions, Mission Directors NHM, senior officials from the Ministry of health and family Welfare, nodal officers and other officials working in the field of Quality and patient safety at states and UTs. Representatives from academic institutions, development partners, NGOs, and International agencies, were also present in the webinar.