Doctors join attempt to improve patient safety and cut medical errors

Doctors from across the country are to meet tomorrow to discuss ways to improve patient safety in hospitals.

Doctors from across the country will meet tomorrow to discuss ways to improve patient safety in hospitals and reduce the number of medical errors. Topics being discussed at the Medication Safety Conference will include avoiding mistakes in prescribing drugs and system-related hazards and risks, the state news agency, WAM, reported. Organisers said patient safety was a serious global public health issue and that medication error was the most fundamental challenge facing the health sector. "This is one of the few programmes in the Middle East that offers the opportunity to enhance awareness of safe medications and standards," said Dr Sahar Abu-Omar, chair of the medication safety group at the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company. Recent efforts to reduce the number of medical errors have included a move towards electronic systems, intended to prevent over-prescribing and mixing medications where there is a risk of an adverse reaction. In December, the Minister of Health, Humaid Mohammed Obaid al Qattami, was questioned by a Federal National Council member about what the ministry was doing to prevent medical errors in hospitals, which council members said were resulting in unnecessary deaths. He said a medical negligence law had been drafted, with proposals for criminal sanctions against doctors who breached terms of care. He also discussed setting up mortality and morbidity committees in every hospital to examine every death that occurred there. Tawam Hospital in Al Ain recently launched a patient safety programme, with posters reminding staff of basic safety procedures such as checking sell-by dates on medicines. Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi also announced last year that it was introducing procedures to reduce human error. Patients' medical information should now be reviewed by three individuals. World Health Organisation figures show that adverse drug reactions account for six per cent of hospital admissions worldwide. In October the Ministry of Health announced its Wareed project, an online system to streamline treatments and guard against errors and adverse drug reactions. The conference in Abu Dhabi, which runs tomorrow and Sunday at the Al Ain Rotana Hotel, is supported by Seha and chaired by Dr Adeline Saliba, the medication safety officer at Tawam Hospital. [e-mail]