During the launch ceremony of the Patient Safety Forum 2012 sponsored by the National Guard Health Affairs and King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), His Royal Highness Prince Mitib bin Abdullah, Minister of State, member of the Council of Ministers and Commander of the National Guard directed to cancel registration fees of health practitioners in all medical conferences and seminars held by National Guard Health Affairs in all its facilities.
Moreover, His Royal Highness mentioned that the National Guard worked to improve the quality of health care in order to ensure the safety of patients and to increase the number of health education and technical training programs locally and internationally. Also, it aims to expand research fields in various medical and health disciplines.
On the other hand, Chief Executive Officer of the National Guard Health Affairs and the President of King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences Dr. Bandar Al Knawy clarified the importance of applying international quality standards basic professional health care regulations, pointing out that NGHA hospitals have been awarded the Joint Commission International (JCI) Accreditation. Developing these standards and systems, the hospitals seek to protect patients from health care dangers which may lead to bacterial infections for 1:10 patients and lead to the death of 1 patient out of 300.
Executive Director of Medical Services Dr. Saadi Taher, explained that the conference discussed the major global challenges in the field of patient safety, including hospital acquired infections known as nosocomial infection, patient safety in the field of surgery, culture, governance and leadership, reliability and facilities designing, doctors education for patient safety and medication safety. Each Patient Safety Forum session included a number of scientific lectures delivered by several specialists in the field of patient safety.