SEREMBAN: Effective June 1, all hospitals, government clinics and private clinic chains must set up Patient Safety Committees to ensure the sick receive quality medical treatment and patient safety tops their agenda.
These medical facilities will also have to implement the Malaysian Patient Safety Goals, a set of standards formulated by the Health Ministry’s National Patient Safety Council to ensure practitioners abide by the highest safety standards and to prevent negligence.
Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the hospitals and clinics would also be required to submit their annual reports on their compliance to the National Patient Safety Council by Jan 31 every year.
“The move is to ensure patients receive safe and proper treatment and to prevent mistakes that could be detrimental to their health,” he said in a directive.
The National Patient Safety Council was set up in 2003 to assess patient safety in Malaysian health facilities and to formulate ways to continuously improve this.
Dr Noor Hisham said the top managements at these medical facilities would be responsible for the formation of the committees and to ensure their functioning.
He said that among the committees’ tasks were to be the prime mover in patient safety in their respective facility and to plan and set up methods, work systems and programmes towards achieving the goals.
Apart from implementing the “Malaysian Patient Safety Goals” procedures, committee members should also discuss complaints and incidents on patient safety and take remedial action.
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