Muscat, Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Sa’eedi,

Minister of Health today presided over the first meeting of the World

Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Quality of Care

and Patient Safety, in the presence of Dr. Rashid al-Abri, Head of the

WHO-CC, as well as Dr. Qamrah al-Sariri, MOH Director General of

Quality Assurance Centre.

The Minister of Health pointed out that this national centre that

was officially announced at the Arab Health Ministries Meeting in

December 2018, represents all health sectors in the Sultanate. He

added that the centre seeks to upgrade quality and patient’s safety at

the national, regional and international levels.

He also affirmed that designating the Sultanate as a WHO

collaborating centre granted upon demonstrating a significant progress

in the field of Quality over the years, in addition to its continuous

collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern

Mediterranean particularly in developing and implementing patient

safety tools, such as Safe Surgery Saves Life, Clean Care Safer

Care, Patient Engagement and Empowerment for Patient Safety, and

Reporting and Learning Systems for Safer Care, as well as in

operational research on patient safety and quality.

The Collaborating Centre will focus on five main tasks underlined in

the provision of the needed resources, professional development and

training, preparation of policies and strategies, integrating patient

safety teaching within the health institutes’ curricula, along with

conducting patient safety research and studies.

In light of this, a ministerial decision was issued to form a

permanent committee to coordinate the work of the WHO Collaborating

Centre in the field of quality and patient safety.

Dr. al-Abri affirmed that this centre will have representatives from all

health sectors in the Sultanate

The Collaborating Centre aims at implementing several themes, in

cooperation with the WHO.

Moreover, the WHO Collaborating Centre aims to integrate

patient safety and quality objectives into health policies and strategies,

as well as supporting WHO Regional Member States, in collaboration

with the WHO.

In addition, the centre inspires to integrate the teaching of patient

safety and quality in the curriculum of academic health institutions. It

encourages conducting research on patient safety and quality, as well

as leading joint research with collaborating centres and NGOs, which

results could be used in the development of patient safety and quality

management system globally, as well as standardization and

monitoring of quality and patient safety activities.

Source: Oman News Agency