Promoting Patient Safety

Patient safety is a fundamental principle and a key determinant of quality healthcare. It is part of the critical efforts to prevent harm caused by the process of healthcare itself. It focuses on preventing, reducing, reporting, and analyzing patient harm and adverse events. Unexpected and unintended events can occur in any setting where healthcare is delivered, and a patient’s safety can accidentally be compromised.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that up to 134 million adverse events occur each year due to unsafe care in hospitals in low- and middle-income countries, contributing to 2.6 million deaths annually. WHO notes that 83% of these adverse events are preventable, with most resulting from failures in clinical processes rather than the absence of essential resources.

Patient safety was highlighted by the Seventy-second World Health Assembly in May 2019 under resolution WHA72.6 on Global Action on Patient Safety, which endorsed the establishment of an annual World Patient Safety Day, celebrated globally on 17 September each year. The right to health in Africa is recognized and guaranteed under Article 16 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Banjul Charter), to which Uganda is a signatory. Article 16 states:

“Every individual shall have the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health”; and
“State Parties to the present Charter shall take the necessary measures to protect the health of their people and to ensure that they receive medical attention when they are sick.”

Patients’ awareness of their rights increases the quality of healthcare services and helps achieve patient safety. Patients, especially in remote and poor communities, often remain submissive, have little knowledge of their rights, and regard any medical attention they receive as a favor from healthcare providers rather than their right. Due to barriers to accessing proper healthcare in remote areas, there is an increased risk of mishaps resulting from incorrect diagnoses and inappropriate medication in these communities, which amplifies cases of preventable harm to patients.

Remote Health is raising awareness about patient safety and the importance of patient and community involvement in healthcare services and improvement initiatives. We are training and orienting remote communities to advocate for their health rights, promoting positive engagement and partnerships between patients, healthcare professionals, and policymakers. We are amplifying the voices of patients and communities within health systems and services, recognizing them as key stakeholders rather than spectators.

We are advocating for policies, strategies, standards, guidelines, and tools for safe healthcare practices, effective implementation where they exist, and lobbying for adequate funding, human resources for remote health, strong management capacity, and equipping remote health facilities to adequately involve patients in improving patient safety. We are working with the National Drug Authority (NDA) to ensure that grassroots communities are aware of the existing channels to report any drug-related issues. We also collaborate with remote health centers to ensure that patient ADRs (adverse drug reactions) are reported to the NDA in a timely manner and that patients receive appropriate feedback.