Despite a few cases of medical errors, the general safety level of patients in public hospitals across Kuwait is very high, said the Director of Regional Center for Patients Safety Assurance at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Waleed Al-Busairi.
The Center is committed to closely monitoring all public and private hospitals in the country in order to ensure the safety of all patients, said Dr. Al-Busairi. He added that as part of the measures to provide more convenience to patients, the Center has drawn up a plan to issue smart cards to all patients. These cards would carry the entire medical history of the patient on a chip and would include laboratory tests, X-ray images and other medical records that will be needed by doctors and healthcare providers.
Noting that there were also plans to coordinate with health authorities in other countries in the Middle East, Dr. Al-Bushairi said this would help to identify problems they face in the implementation of measures to ensure the safety of patients. He added that workshops would be organized to focus on the responsibilities of medical practitioners to overcome problems in coordination with the National Center for Health Information, chaired by Dr. Fatmah Al-Asousi. The Center would analyze statistics on mortality in the country to examine the deaths caused by medical errors and to lay down plans to reach zero medical error levels in future, said Dr. Al-Bushairi.