Patients' Ideas Can Be Used To Improve Hospital Services, Says Health Minister

PUTRAJAYA, Sept 3 (Bernama) -- Patients ideas and experiences can be used to improve systems and services in hospitals, said Health Minister Dr S. Subramaniam. He said whether pleasant or unpleasant, patients' feedback was good for the learning process. "This is the new initiative that we have discussed in this conference. We have Patient Safety Committees in the ministry and we will request them to involve patients more in this process. "I think it is important that we create a very safe environment according to their needs, beliefs, comfort. They know exactly what is to be done," he told a news conference after launching the Malaysian Society for Quality in Health (MSQH) Conference and Exhibition here Tuesday. Subramaniam said patient safety was a key element of quality healthcare. He also encouraged all government and private hospitals in the country to go for MSQH certification, to ensure the services provided by them met international standards. According to him, to date only 68 of the 141 government hospitals and 31 of the more than 200 private hospitals had this accreditation. "This is voluntary process. No plans to make it compulsory," he said. -- BERNAMA