Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar highlighted the importance of instilling a strong culture that prioritises patient safety, receiving and learning from experience and transparency.
He said this in a message for the World Patient Safety Day (WPSD) yesterday, adding that “WPSD is celebrated annually on September 17 by World Health Organization member countries as an integrated commitment in highlighting the importance of patient safety”.
This year’s theme, ‘Improving Diagnosis For Patient Safety’, focuses “on the importance and accuracy of diagnosis in healthcare for the sake of protection patient safety.
“Accurate and timely diagnosis is essential for effective treatment and a quality healthcare system. However, errors in diagnosis can lead to prolonged illness or even endanger a patient’s life,” the minister added.
This year’s WPSD is celebrated to convey four main messages: correct and accurate diagnosis as the first step in effective prevention and treatment of disease; understanding the diagnostic process is key to reduce diagnosis delays; the variety of available solutions is the strategy in dealing with diagnostic errors; and correct and accurate diagnosis in healthcare requires cooperation and commitment from all.
Currently, he said, “The Ministry of Health (MoH) is taking advantage of technology as one of its efforts to improve basic healthcare in Brunei Darussalam.
“The introduction of mobile apps, like BruHealth, showcases innovation in healthcare, using electronic health records and data analysis integrated with artificial intelligence to improve diagnostic accuracy.”
The MoH also launched several features including ‘Health Index’ and ‘National Health Screening Programme’ in the BruHealth system to increase public awareness, detection and prevention against the early risk of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
The minister called on all levels of the society to take advantage of the existing features in the BruHealth app to improve the culture of healthy living.
In addition, the minister said, the MoH is also committed in implementing a strong safety culture to produce efficient health administration and effective capacity building of healthcare system. A safety culture means fostering an environment that prioritises patient safety, receiving and learning from experience of incidents that occur as well as continuous promotion of the values of transparency. This matter not only plays a role to ensure that technology tools can be used effectively but frontliners will also be united in delivering safe and high quality healthcare.
Therefore, he added, “the MoH will continue to work and cooperate with all parties, including patients, health professionals and policymakers to ensure that every diagnosis made is correct and accurate”.
The minister also said the MoH “will enhance the diagnostic process by improving communication, and involve patients more actively in their own healthcare delivery. A concerted effort can help to reduce errors and prevent delays in diagnosis as well as achieve a safe and effective healthcare system for all”. – James Kon
