H.E the Health Minster Dr. Tawfiq Al Rabiah has conveyed the greetings of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz to the participants in the 4th Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety wishing them a pleasant stay and for the summit to be successful.
Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah, in his own name and on behalf of the all health sectors' staff, has welcomed the participants and thanked them for participating in the 4ht Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety under the title, "Enhancing Patient Safety in Middle and Less Developed Countries", hoping that the summit will mark a quantum shift in promoting the concept of patient safety and its importance at the regional and international levels.
In his speech at the inauguration of the summit he said," The Kingdom has taken great strides in improving health care and enhancing patient safety. This is also a key health component of the National Transformation Program, which will help us to achieve the objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030."
"In recognition of the responsibility shouldered by the international community regarding the patient safety, the Kingdom is honored to host this important summit, hoping that its outcomes will be an additional block in the efforts to promote patient safety at the international level in general and middle and less developed countries in particular. Workshops will be organized to discuss the most important topics related to patient safety, such as health coverage, workforce, digital health and scientific research, as well as highlighting policies, patient empowerment and safety", he adds.
In light of the Kingdom interest and its international leading role in supporting patient safety, Al-Rabiah has launched "Med Consult' application in collaboration with the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) and the World Health Organization (WHO), as one of the important outcomes of the summit. “It is an application for medical consultations through which health practitioners in less developed countries and consultants from around the world can visually communicate to reduce diagnostic errors, increase effectiveness and share experiences,” the Saudi minister said.
Dr. Al-Rabiah said, "Jeddah Declaration on Patient Safety would also be launched at the end of the summit, hoping that this declaration could be a continuation of our efforts to promote patient safety internationally and a practical tool to improve safety in health sector".
Regarding the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the UK and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt participation in the summit, Al-Rabiah said he is one of the founders of the ministerial summits on patient safety and has impacted the World Health Organization's adoption of the World Patient Safety Day.
For his part, Mr. Jeremy Hunt reviewed the most important patient safety issues in his country. In his speech, he cited a number of humanitarian stories of patients who had suffered due to medical errors. He highlighted how his former ministry learnt from those experiences to prevent the further occurrence of such life-threatening errors and support in Britain and European continent. He added that achieving goals in the field of patient safety is only possible with the participation of the community, especially those who have experienced mistakes, calling on everyone to shed light on the humanitarian aspect, which is overlooked by some in many medical errors.
The British minister praised Saudi Arabia for hosting the summit, which is considered an extraordinary one for the number of participants at the ministerial level, which reached about 49 countries, in addition to the participation of 25 ministers of health, along with a number of participants and speakers,” he said.
He also thanked the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the minister of health, Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah for the Saudi support at the WHO to help it achieve its goals in patient safety, praising the great cooperation between his country and Saudi Arabia in this field.
Director General of the Saudi Patient Safety Center (SPSC) and chairman of the summit’s organizing committee Dr. Abdulelah Hawsawi pointed out that over the past 20 years, efforts had been focusing on patient safety in developed countries, while they were weak in the middle and less developed countries. Therefore, he said, we will focus on supporting patient safety efforts in these less fortunate countries. The Kingdom has supported many of the countries participating in this summit he said, pointing out to the importance of benefiting from other sectors such as aviation and nuclear energy sector, gas and oil sector in regard to the fact that the safety level in theses sector is totally different now compared to 50 years ago.
“Through workshops today and tomorrow, we look forward to working with experts to come up with a number of optimal solutions that can help us increase patient safety and reduce health care errors,” he added. He pointed out to the great efforts exerted by the Kingdom to achieve patient safety through the SPSC, the fist-of-its-kind in the region.
He said, "The Kingdom hosting of the 4th summit on patients safety is a proof that the Kingdom has played a key role to bring the summit to the region under the auspices of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and his support for the patient safety not only at the local level but also the international level".
He concluded that "By Allah willing, the name of Saudi Arabia will globally be linked, in the near future, to positive efforts in supporting patient safety. Next year, we will be presenting the Patient Safety Agenda at the G20 summit, and it will also support the safety of patients internationally".
The summit included 8 workshops on ways to benefit from other health sectors, in addition to patient and community empowerment, infection-related damage in health facilities, the workforce, supporting researches in patient safety and digital health. In preparation for the Jeddah Declaration, the summit will announce on the next day a number of recommendations to be presented to the health ministers participating in the summit.