Working together to make Health Care Safer

New Delhi [India], September 19 (ANI/GPRC): World Patient Safety Day was observed on September 17 by Peerless Hospital and BK Roy Research Clinic have organised MEDI SAFE CON 2022 on the eve of World Patient Safety Day for the first time in eastern India.
The global landscape of health care is changing with health systems operating in increasingly complex environments. While new treatments, technologies and care models can have therapeutic potential, they can also pose new threats to safe care. Patient safety is a fundamental principle of health care and is now being recognized as a large and growing global public health challenge.
Patient safety in health care consistently and sustainably lowers risks, reducing the occurrence of avoidable harm, make error less likely and reduce its impact when it does occur. Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems across the world. Globally, the cost associated with medication errors has been estimated at USD 42 billion USD annually. Errors can occur at different stages of the medication use process. Multiple interventions to address the frequency and impact of medication errors have already been developed, yet their implementation is varied. A wide mobilization of stakeholders supporting sustained actions is required. In response to this, WHO has identified "Medication Without Harm" as the theme for the third Global Patient Safety Challenge.
The campaign calls on stakeholders to prioritize and take early action in key areas associated with significant patient harm due to unsafe medication practices. These include high-risk situations, transitions of care, polypharmacy (concurrent use of multiple medications) and look-alike, sound-alike medications."Medication Without Harm" aims to reduce severe avoidable medication-related harm by 50 per cent, globally in the next 5 years.
Objectives of World Patient Safety Day 2022:
1. RAISE global awareness of the high burden of medication-related harm due to medication errors and unsafe practices, and ADVOCATE urgent action to improve medication safety.
2. ENGAGE key stakeholders and partners in the efforts to prevent medication errors and reduce medication-related harm.
3. EMPOWER patients and families to be actively involved in the safe use of medication.
4. SCALE UP implementation of the WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm.
Being a part of this global campaign Peerless Hospital & BK Roy Research Clinic have organised MEDI SAFE CON 2022 on the eve of World Patient Safety Day for the first time in eastern India.
This Medical Safety Conference aims to raise awareness amongst doctors, patients, students, caregivers, stakeholders in various fields like Oncology, Gastro, Critical care, Padeatric, Domiciliary Care, Telemedicine and also its medico-legal implications.
"It is the combined responsibility of the medical profession across the globe to participate in the initiatives taken by WHO on very important issues, such as Patient Safety. We have been trained to practice medicine and the first principle we have been taught has been - "Do No Harm". This is the single most important lesson that we should try and implement in our practice. Despite its importance, the profession continues to inflict sufferings and pain by inappropriate and unsafe prescription of medicine." Says Dr Sujit Kar Purakayastha MD Peerless Hospital. Surgical Oncologist Dr Diptendra Sarkar too feels that this conference will raise awareness amongst physicians and doctors. He says "The covid pandemic as set a new world order. Data suggests that 1 out of 7 covid hospitalized patients had secondary infection. The physicians were left with no option but " match stick response" of desperate "empirical treatment". Thus, antimicrobial resistance and the emergence of newer " previously unheard of" strains have surfaced up. The problem of handling " superbugs" in hospital environment has become a major issue for all of us. The spreading AMR can destroy years of innovations. Desperate and random use of antibiotics in the community has also created an unprecedented situation. With very few molecules in the pipeline, the situation is truly one of " panic". AMR-related deaths are scaling up in disproportionate amount. It is time to revisit the basics and re-establish guidelines which is suited to the new order." Dr Subhrojyoti Bhowmickorganizing Chairman of this conference says "Medisafecon 2022 is being held on the eve of world patient safety is our effort to bring together patient safety experts who will discuss on how medication errors can be reduced in hospitals. We have international speakers and national level doctors, nurses and pharmacologists who will discuss various strategies to prevent medication errors in day-to-day patient care".
Peerless Hospital is a 400bed premier multispecialty corporate Hospital of East India which has been built around the core principles of empathy, transparency, medical ethics and affordability and is located at Panchasayar, the southern fringe of Kolkata where patients heal in a lush green and spacious environment. The Hospital's focus area has been on clinical excellence and clinical research which is why Peerless Hospital has to its credit umpteen number of rare and complicated cases handled, many of which were recognized as firsts of the eastern region and featured in peer-reviewed journals.
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