Prof the Lord Darzi speaking at the conference yesterday.
By Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter
The health sector has seen a large number of developments over the years but the health services need a lot of improvement all across the world, stated a leading international physician yesterday. He also pointed out that patient safety should be the priority in the healthcare services.
Giving the keynote lecture at the opening ceremony of the 32nd Conference of the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua), Prof the Lord Darzi of Denham, director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College of London and executive chair of World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) noted that ensuring quality in health services is a huge challenge.
Lord Darzi said: “Scientific inventions have enhanced the life expectancy of human beings but our system has become more complicated. At least 2,000 patients die every year in the United Kingdom of human error. Only 55% patients gets appropriate healthcare.”
Lord Darzi pointed out that patient safety is one of the major challenges and WISH had come out with a detailed report that includes a number of guidelines, recommendations for patient safety, during its
recent summit.
He pointed out that 50% of deaths in the UK and the USA are related to the choices people make in their food, drinks and other similar aspects.
He said that 45% of clinical practice does not follow evidence based guidelines and 30 to 40% of the spending in healthcare is discretionary without having any beneficial impact. He added that it was because of the fact that humans are irrational in many cases and commit the same mistakes.
Lord Darzi emphasised the need for the use of technology to avoid errors suggesting to digital health. “Eighty per cent of adverse events take place due to communication error. Errors happen at the transition points such as shift changes. Prioritisation is important and the use of smartphone and other technology can be a solution for the problem,” he said.
The renowned physician also pointed out that primary care is another area where quality care has to be ensured. “Diagnostic error is the common cause of litigation in many countries. Appropriate safety can be ensured through technology and
training,” he added.
The official also hinted that Qatar has embraced the challenges in healthcare and several amazing solutions in healthcare will be on the way.
