National Guard Minister Prince Miteb bin Abdullah

National Guard Minister Prince Miteb bin Abdullah inaugurated on Tuesday the Seventh Patient Safety Forum in Riyadh, saying his ministry is keen on maintaining the best standards in patient safety and disseminating information via a comprehensive awareness program.

More than 3,000 participants, six international speakers and local speakers attended the forum, where 120 scientific papers were presented.

The prince said National Guard hospitals make it a point to develop health education and technical training programs internally and externally, and to expand areas of medical research in various disciplines via scientific conferences and meetings of specialized training courses.

The forum “is another milestone… in our continued journey toward maintaining and delivering optimum safety in patient care,” said Bandar Al-Knawy, CEO of health affairs at the National Guard Ministry.

“Given past successes, we are delighted to host the Patient Safety Forum as an annual event to be used as a platform to address both our organizational needs and the national need for the delivery of safe patient care.”

Al-Knawy said over the years, the ministry has fulfilled its obligation to improve the systematic delivery of premium health care by early recognition of the importance of researching and adapting international standards, while working tirelessly toward building capacity for quality improvement in safe patient care.

This year’s forum will include an additional topic that the ministry went through recently: The MERS-CoV outbreak.

Dr. Saadi Taher, chairman of the scientific committee of the forum, said: “We have achieved remarkable improvements in specific defects and harm involving sepsis, hospital-acquired infections, surgical adverse events and pressure ulcers. Lethal central line-associated blood stream infections are history in many intensive-care units. However… we need to move beyond successful projects to integrating patient safety within each component of the health care system.”

He added: “The next phase of patient safety… needs leaders to promote and mentor teams, and establish a learning system based on transparency, evidence, reliability, improvement in science and continuous learning.”