Chriatina Baun Lian (third right), Deputy Director of Sarawak Health Department Training and Competency Unit, Juliana Mohammad Ali (second right) and State Matron Aieshah Zainudin (right).
KUCHING: Some 210 participants attended the 3rd Sarawak Nursing Professional Scientific Meeting (SASM) held here, yesterday. Gracing the ceremony, Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said that based on the International Living Report, Malaysia is the only Asian country included in the report, ‘Four Countries with The Best Healthcare in The World’, putting the country among the top four destinations for healthcare seekers. According to the report , Malaysia actually ranked third with well-trained doctors, healthcare professionals and Englishspeaking doctors.
“I am heartened by the theme of the conference, ‘Let’s Promote Safe Health Care’ which underpins our concern on patients’ safety for all those seeking treatments in our clinics and hospitals and underscore our effort to eliminate the risk of preventable harms to the patients.
“We are aware that the Ministry of Health (MOH) has been implementing various innovative initiatives to ensure quality care and patient safety, and the first of such initiatives was on the Quality Assurance programme launched in 1985,” said Fatimah, adding MOH had also reassured that the quality of care and patient safety will never be compromised. She noted that Malaysia has always put quality healthcare and patient safety as a national priority.
Following a Cabinet directive, she said, the Patient Safety Council of Malaysia was formally established in January 2003. “Chai red by the Di rec tor General of Health, the council updates the Minister of Health the situation on preventable adverse events and advises on the measures to address the matter. “In its effort to maintain a safe healthcare system, the council has developed the Malaysian Patient Safety Goals which consist of 13 goals and 19 Key Performance Index (KPIs).
“The philosophy of the Malaysian Patient Safety Goals is that Patient Safety is a dimension of quality in health care and should be given prime importance by the healthcare fraternity, and if possible, preventable adverse should be avoided at all cost,” said Fatimah. She thanked all the conference participants for spending their time and resources to upgrade their knowledge and skills in order to provide better services.
