The Health Ministry wants public and private healthcare to move away from a two-care system and to work towards achieving a seamless industry by having the same benchmarks in the areas of services, training and research and publication.
Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there is currently a two-care system in which public and private healthcare have different strengths and weaknesses.
"We are trying to bridge the system in terms of them merging into one, meeting the same standards in quality of services and patient safety, accessibility to services and equity of healthcare," he said in his keynote address at the National Patient Safety Campaign and Seminar today.
Noor Hisham said patient safety has become increasingly crucial, and that it requires a two-pronged approach of problem-solving and a culture of prevention, made possible by sharing of information and expertise.
"The public sector has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the private sector too. So, if our staff members are confident they can report errors and preventable adverse events without getting blamed, everyone can learn from mistakes and work towards quality care," he said.
Noor Hisham added that international experts estimate between 4% and 16% of all hospital admissions worldwide result in adverse events, with half being potentially preventable.
"Thus, while a certain number of adverse events are inevitable, our duty is to minimise these incidences. We need to discard the blaming culture, presently inherent in many healthcare systems, including our own. Only then can we develop and nurture a 'reporting culture' where undesired incidents are reported as a matter of routine," he said.
The nation's first patient safety campaign saw the launch of 13 Malaysian patient safety goals to be initiated this year, among others, the implementation of various World Health Organisation challenges and patient identification.
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