World Patient Safety day: Safe diagnostic pathways crucial

ON World Patient Safety Day, a medical expert, Professor Olusola Olawoye, said that safe diagnostic pathways from the primary healthcare level through the secondary and tertiary healthcare levels are vital for improving diagnosis and patient safety in Nigeria.

Olawoye, a deputy Chief Medical Advisory Committee at the University College Hos-pital, who spoke on the 2024 World Patient Safety Day with the theme “Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety” in the hospital, said creating such effective work systems will prevent quackery in the health sector, including preventing missed, incorrect, delayed, or miscommunicated diagnoses.

According to her, job stress, patients seeing the incorrect people, poor patient-provider communication, erroneous patient information, poverty, and a delay in notifying the healthcare provider of test results can all lead to misdiagnosis.

“Delays in the patient’s care may result even if they receive positive results if the information is not forwarded promptly to the healthcare professional that will perform the final as-sessment. Therefore, occasionally a delayed diagnosis occurs instead of a full misdiagnosis.

And for that reason, World Health Organisation (WHO) advises, “Get it right, make it safe.”

Olawoye said diagnosis errors occur more in developing countries, including Nigeria, because of faulty equipment and human error, saying that patients, carers, health care leaders, and policymakers also have a pivotal role in correct and timely diagnosis and improving safety.

“Policy makers and healthcare leaders should foster positive workplace environments and provide quality diagnostic tools. Health workers should be encouraged to continuously develop their skills and address unconscious bias in their judgement. They must efficiently and effectively pass patient information along the health strata. Patients should be supported to be actively engaged in their care.”

Mrs Adenike Osubu, the deputy director of Nursing and Health Clinical Nursing Department at the UCH, Ibadan, said in a reaction that patients are central to healthcare services and their care and safety should always be prioritised.

Osubu, however, challenged Nigerians to take responsibility for their health and seek health care in the appropriate quarters if there’s any health chal-lenge, while aspiring always to be health champions.

“Avoid going to the local chemist and asking them to treat you for a medical condi-tion. The best won’t be yours.

Ask for medical assistance in the proper location. Mothers ought to be in charge of raising their children.