EU expertconferentie: onderwijs in kwaliteitszorg en patiëntveiligheid (en)

Polish Presidency i has organized on 9th September, 2011 in Krakow Expert Conference on Education in Quality Care and Patient Safety.

Conference hosted by the National Center for Quality Assessment in Health Care in Krakow was attended by delegates from Ministries of Health of EU Member States, European Commission, Council of Europe, European Society for Quality in Healthcare, Standing Committee of European Doctors, European Federation of Nurses Associations, European Patients’ Forum, European Society of Surgery, European Society of Anesthesiology, European Society of Cardiology, Danish Society for Patient Safety, Polish Society for Quality Promotion in Healthcare, Committee on Ergonomics of the Polish Academy of Sciences and representatives of polish medical universities.

Conference participants expressed opinion that healthcare safety is important and still too rarely analyzed issue. The focus was made on fact that studies and analysis conducted and published i.a. in European Union (UK, Denmark, Spain, France) prove considerable defects in health sector. 10% of hospitalized persons experience damage during the treatment when half of these cases could be avoided. A number of redundant surgery procedures (not based on evidence based medicine) and prescribed medical examinations or medicines reaches the level of 20-25%.

Krakow Statement on education in quality care and patient safety was adopted on the basis of the discussion.

The adoption of Krakow Statement is important step towards implementation of strategic documents on quality of care and patient safety, such as:

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  Recommendation of Patient Safety Working Group to the High Level Group on Health Services and Medical Care on patient safety, 2007;
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  Council Recommendation on patient safety, including the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections, 2009;
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  White Paper "Together for Health: A Strategic Approach for the EU (2008-2013), 2007;
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  Commission Communication to the Council and EU Parliament on patient safety, including the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections, 2008.

Education in quality of care and patient safety was not so far discussed as a separate issue by previous Presidencies. Poland is the first one that addresses this topic during its Presidency and puts interest on the need of modification of medical education curricula and necessity to analyze the differences in quality and safety of healthcare within EU countries.

Although the majority of EU countries - among them Poland - implement the mechanisms of quality and safety of healthcare improvement, the results are moderate. The Krakow Statement postulates the introduction and implementation of so called improvement knowledge into curricula of education on medical universities, at thepostgraduate and continuous level. It may become a factor that will strengthen the results of undertaken activities and bring a measurable improvement in quality of care and safety culture in the future.