Is Patient Safety need or luxury in developing countries?

Abstract

Healthcare organizations are complex organizations and healthcare delivery is a complex process involving number of stakeholders. Patient safety is not an easy task to achieve in healthcare settings, especially in developing countries because of resource constraints, shortage of properly qualified medical, nursing and paramedical professionals, underdeveloped information technology and lack of awareness about patient safety in all stakeholders. Adequate supplies to control and prevent infections are not readily available and the compliance with hand hygiene, blood safety or proper waste disposal is very poor. The unsafe use of injections, medical devices, blood products, inadequate surgical procedures and biomedical waste management result in thousands of unreported infections acquired from patients and healthcare professionals. WHO estimates that syringes or needles are reused without sterilization is between 1.5% and 69.4% in transitional and developing countries. In a survey conducted in 22 developing countries, the percentage of facilities not using proper waste disposal methods ranged from 18% to 64%.