Hello HIFA colleagues,
I'm Meena Nathan Cherian (former WHO staff) and a HIFA Steering Group and Spotlight Group member who has prepared this discussion. I would like to introduce Question 2. What are the main causes of unsafe care for people living with NCDs? To what extent is access to reliable healthcare information a determinant of patient safety?
NCDs, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and chronic lung disease, are collectively responsible for 74% of all deaths worldwide (WHO).
i. One of the main causes of ‘unsafe care’ for people living with NCDs is ‘lack of access to reliable healthcare information’ for both patients and healthcare providers. Patients may not be aware of evidence-based scientific knowledge on prevention, early detection, and appropriate, timely treatment. Health providers at the primary and community level often lack access to scientific updates to guide and communicate to patients on early detection, diagnoses, and to make treatment and follow-up decisions. Lack of updated evidence-based standard protocols at health facilities for treatment and for avoiding medication, diagnostic, and equipment errors is also one of the causes of ‘unsafe care’. Health facilities with constrained resources due to limited financial support, poorly maintained equipment, and lack of trained health providers and caregivers lead to ‘poor quality, harmful and unsafe care’.
ii. Lack of access to reliable healthcare information is a crucial determinant of unsafe patient care, leading to poor quality of care and poor outcomes at all levels of health facilities.
Best wishes
Dr. Meena Nathan Cherian, MBBS, MD (Anaesthesia)
(Former WHO Lead Emergency and Essential Surgical Care Program, Geneva, Switzerland).
Director, Global Health New Challenges: Geneva Foundation for Medical Education & Research, Switzerland. <http://www.gfmer.ch/surgery/cancer.htm> www.gfmer.ch/surgery/cancer.htm (NSA-WHO)
Senior Advisor, Global Action International Society of Geriatric Oncology <https://siog.org/about-us/governance/leadership/permanent-committees/> Permanent Committees - SIOG
Senior Advisor, International College of Surgeons-Global Affairs. <https://icsglobal.org/> https://icsglobal.org/ (NSA-WHO)
Adjunct Prof., The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen,China. <https://med.cuhk.edu.cn/en/teacher/371> https://med.cuhk.edu.cn/en/teacher/371
WHO-HIFA Essential Health Services; mHEALTH-INNOVATE. <http://www.hifa.org/> www.hifa.org (NSA-WHO).
Geneva, Switzerland. +41 763837253(m); cherianm15@gmail.com
HIFA profile: Meena Nathan Cherian was a professor of anaesthesiology from Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, India. She trained, worked, and taught in several countries, USA (Johns Hopkins Hospital), Southeast Asia and Africa. She worked at the World Health Organization Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, as the Emergency and Essential Surgical Care Program Lead where she created the ‘surgical care’ program resulting in the first World Health Assembly Resolution on ‘Emergency and Essential Surgical Care and Anaesthesia in the context of Universal Health Coverage’. Currently she works as the Director, Global Health New Challenges program, Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research, Geneva, Switzerland; Adjunct Prof. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China; Senior Advisor, Global Action, International Society of Geriatric Oncology, Switzerland; she is a member of the HIFA Steering Group; HIFA Partnerships and Projects Working Group; and HIFA mHEALTH-INNOVATE Working Group. cherianm15 AT gmail.com