Story by Fairstars Mukungurutse
ZIMBABWE has made commendable strides in ensuring patient safety as the nation moves towards achieving universal health coverage.
This came out during commemorations to mark World Patient Safety Day in Harare this Tuesday as improving the country’s health delivery remains a key priority for the Second Republic with access to health services for all central to achieving Vision 2030.
Speaking on the sidelines of the commemorations held at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital, Chief Director in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Maxwell Hove highlighted significant progress made in ensuring the country’s health institutions provide quality and accessible health services.
“We have invested a lot in ensuring that our patients right from the clinic up to the central hospital get accurate diagnosis of all ailments. For those tests that require big machines, they go to district hospitals, they go to the provincial hospital to get their CT scans if they want MRI scans and other genetic tests to be done, they are referred to central hospitals.
“We have also come up with another top layer called the quinary which we are still in the process of establishing where even higher research advanced tests can be conducted to ensure our people get access to diagnostic services, and they are safe when they get their treatment and it also provides universal health coverage,” said Dr Hove.
Sally Mugabe Central Hospital Acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr Hopewell Mungani stressed the importance of patient safety.
“We do not want to harm patients when they come to our institutions. We need to reduce the rate at which patients suffer from the adverse effects. These might come in the form of falls, inaccurate diagnosis, delayed diagnosis, acquiring infections that they were not subjected to when they were at home called hospital acquired infections.
“These are the ones we are targeting and trying to reduce. We are raising awareness amongst the general public and our staff so that we continue to improve on patients’ safety,” said Dr Mungani.
Held under the theme: “Improving diagnosis for patient safety”, World Patient Safety Day is commemorated every year on the 17th of September, to raise awareness on preventing harm to patients and advocating for safer healthcare practices.
