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