Media Releases and Communiques
Australian Health Ministers endorse report into health care safety
Australian Health Ministers today strongly endorsed the work of the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC), following the release of its second annual report to Health Ministers Safety in Practice - Making Health Care Safer.
1 August 2001
Joint communique
Australian Health Ministers endorse report into health care safety
Australian Health Ministers today strongly endorsed the work of the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC), following the release of its second annual report to Health Ministers Safety in Practice - Making Health Care Safer.
The report was presented to the Australian Health Ministers' conference in Adelaide by the Council's Chair, Professor Bruce Barraclough.
The ACSQHC was set up following the 1999 Health Ministers' conference to lead national efforts to improve the safety and quality of health services across Australia.
The meeting congratulated the Council, with Federal Health and Aged Care Minister, Dr Michael Wooldridge, describing its work as providing a real opportunity for Australia to lead the world in safety and quality improvements in health care.
"I am delighted that the Council has identified the issues that need to be tackled to ensure the safety of our health system and that all Australian Health Ministers have strongly supported its work," he said.
Health Ministers congratulated the Council on its excellent and comprehensive work, which they acknowledged was a sound investment in making the Australian health care system even safer.
"The report provides the basis upon which the states can move toward improving what already is a world-class health system," said Mr Brown, South Australian Minister for Human Services.
"There are issues which need to be addressed and the report highlights these and the South Australian Government is pleased to support the reports recommendation."
To encourage wide discussion of the Council's work, Ministers also agreed that the reports be publicly available and that they be widely distributed for further consultation.
Focus of Work
Ministers also agreed that the Council should lead national efforts to implement priority strategies in relation to:- better identifying and managing risks,
- reducing unnecessary system complexities,
- encouraging and rewarding improvement and innovation, and
- promoting greater openness and communication.
- Integrated risk management;
- Incident monitoring and follow up systems;
- Improved credentialling processes for health care professionals;
- More effective and open communication with patients and their carers;
- Action in known risk areas such as medication errors, health care acquired infection and patient falls;
- Qualified privilege schemes which encourage performance assessment and open reporting of areas for improvement.
Improving Data
The Health Ministers endorsed the Council's work on data, as outlined in its Safety in Numbers Report. This report highlights the need for improved data to allow the health system to better direct its efforts towards improving safety.They welcomed the national leadership that the Council was bringing to issues such as improving the quality of information about adverse events, and offered to work collaboratively with the Council to improve the quality and usefulness of existing data sets, and to develop more nationally consistent reporting mechanisms for adverse events.
Ministers noted that there was no single source of data to allow collection of information in a way that was useful for improving the safety of the health system, and supported a multi faceted national approach to reporting, reviewing and acting upon information about near misses, errors and system failures.
They also agreed that nationally coordinated action on known problem areas such as hospital-acquired infections, reducing medication errors and patient falls would be a first step towards improving the system to reduce the potential for harm resulting from these risks.
Health Ministers supported moves to improve the use of coronial data, and to analyse other existing national mortality and morbidity data sets to improve processes for reviewing health care related deaths. They also supported the notion of exploring how other high-risk industries (such as aviation and mining) have tackled their specific safety issues, and the lessons for health care.
Workforce
All Ministers recognised the health of the workforce as being a critical element in patient safety. They called for greater recognition of the contributions being made by frontline health care workers to ensure the safety of patient care, and emphasised the importance of providing
better support to doctors, nurses and health care professionals in their efforts to make health care safer.
Health Ministers acknowledged that, in the great majority of cases, health care workers are doing the best they can for their patients, often in very demanding work environments. They support the Council's efforts to identify and implement practical steps to help these people to deliver even safer patient care.
Health Ministers also fully endorsed the Council's recent call for tenders to develop standards on open disclosure of adverse events. As part of this work, support packages will be developed to assist health professionals and consumers with their implementation.
Media Contact: Craig Simonetto, Media Adviser, Office of Dr Wooldridge: 0413 722 281
Huw Morgan, Media Adviser South Australian Human Services Minister and Conference Chair, Dean Brown: 0417 834 547
