• Detrimental errors are related to diagnosis, prescription and the use of medicines
• Unsafe surgical care procedures cause complications in up to 25 per cent of patients
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
More than five patients die every minute globally because of unsafe care, the World Health Organisation has said.
Further, four out of every 10 patients are harmed during primary and ambulatory health care, it states.
Ambulatory care is a medical service provided on an outpatient basis, including diagnosis, observation, consultation, treatment, intervention, and rehabilitation services.
These details are contained in a statement released ahead of the first World Patient Safety Day to be marked today (September 17).
According to WHO, the most detrimental errors are related to diagnosis, prescription and the use of medicines.
Medication errors alone cost an estimated $42 billion annually.
Unsafe surgical care procedures cause complications in up to 25 per cent of patients resulting in one million deaths during or immediately after surgery annually.
The majority of Kenyans believe that patient safety standards in the country are a far cry from global benchmarks.
The health system challenges have been known to be great contributors to many cases of medical errors.
They include the shortage of health workers.
The shortage of nurses in Kenya is particularly worrying and has a material effect on overall patient safety standards.
The Kenya Healthcare Workforce Report shows the current ratio of practising nurses to the population is 8.3 per 10,000 against the WHO recommended limit of 25 nurses per 10,000.
The dire shortage of nurses against the backdrop of a huge number of patients contributes to fatigue and increases the chances of human error.
The global health agency says millions of patients are harmed each year due to unsafe health care worldwide resulting in 2.6 million deaths annually in low-and middle-income countries alone.
The WHO is now focusing global attention on the issue of patient safety and launching the campaign in solidarity with patients.
“No one should be harmed while receiving health care. We need a patient safety culture that promotes partnership with patients, encourages reporting and learning from errors, and creates a blame-free environment where health workers are empowered and trained to reduce errors," WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The WHO further calls for urgent action by countries and partners around the world to reduce patient harm in health care.
“Patient harm in health care is unacceptable. Patient safety and quality of care are essential for delivering effective health services and achieving universal health coverage,” WHO says.
According to WHO, most of the deaths are avoidable yet the personal, social and economic impact of patient harm leads to losses of trillions of US dollars worldwide.
The agency is now advocating more patient involvement as the key to safer care, adding that engaging patients can reduce the burden of harm by up to 15 per cent, saving billions of dollars each year.