Permanent Mission of India

Geneva
*****

Statement by India at the WHO information session on patient safety proposal of a Group of countries – Delivered by Dr. Sadre Alam, First Secretary

Thank you for organizing this useful information session.

2. Patient safety is a fundamental element of health care. It represents an important dimension of the quality of health care in the context of Universal Health Coverage and encompasses both medical and non-medical domains and problems due to errors related to communication, patient management and clinical performance.

3. People have a right to safety. Consumers have a right to safety. And so do patients, who are both people and consumers. Right to patient safety is part of the overall right to safety and is a core element of right to life and health. Right to patient safety is likewise a fundamental human right.

4. Patient safety should not remain in the realm of morality and ethics but should be rooted in an enabling and enforceable legal framework. Further, patient safety is related, not merely, to healthcare service delivery through institutions and health workforce but also to health products, technologies and procedures. It has preventive, promotive and corrective aspects. Access to information to facilitate informed choice and decision making would be critical to ensuring the safety of patients.

5. In addition to collecting data and evidence for policies and decisions and sharing it, collaborating for research will be critical to ensuring effective and sustainable patient safety.

6. Broadly speaking, patients have a right to safety, the healthcare service provider the duty to provide safe care and treatment through use of safe health products and technologies in a safe environment and the Governments the primary responsibility to promote and fulfil patient safety.

7. The WHO could play a vital role in providing necessary technical support, normative guidance and serve as a forum for international cooperation and collaboration.

8. Over half of the world’s population, especially poor, marginalized and vulnerable communities, cannot access even essential health care. Where people do have access to services, care underemphasizes prevention and is too often inadequate, fragmented, of poor quality, or unsafe. The Government of India recognizes the importance of the issue of patient safety, both nationally and

globally, and especially in the context of achieving the SDG of Universal Health Coverage. Recently, we have put in place a National Patient Safety Implementation Framework 2018-25, a unifying framework that brings together all the various programmes being implemented to give better expression to patient safety elements by coordinating and synergizing the initiatives for its additive and summative effects. For e.g. the National Quality Assurance, Indian Public Health Standards for Health Facilities, National plan of action on AMR, Clinical Establishment (Registeration & Regulation) Act 2010, Consumer Protection Act, Infection prevention and control programme in all Health Care Facilities, Safe & Clean Environment programme including Management of Health Care Waste in Health Facilities among others. The NPSIF 2018-25 provides an action plan and monitoring framework through its six strategic objectives and related priority areas and key interventions. It is intended for adoption by all stakeholders to ingrain patient safety in healthcare delivery across the public and private sectors. I will be happy to share more information with anyone interested.

9. India broadly supports the proposal and would like to co-propose it.

10. I look forward to working together with colleagues from other countries and in the WHO to take this important agenda forward.

Thank you

05 September 2018