The maiden Ghana Patient Safety Forum has urged doctors, nurses and general practitioners to strengthen incident reporting, improve communication and build systems that prevent avoidable harm to patients.
It called on healthcare professionals and facilities across the country to make patient safety a daily responsibility rather than an occasional priority.
Held at The Bank Hospital, the forum brought together healthcare professionals and other stakeholders to discuss practical ways of preventing avoidable harm and improving the quality of care in Ghana.
Here are a few Key Lessons for Ghana’s Healthcare Professionals:
1) Reporting incidents can prevent future harm.
A central message from the forum was the importance of reporting incidents and “near misses”. Healthcare professionals were encouraged to report safety concerns whether they happen by accident or through other circumstances.
When incidents are not reported, facilities may struggle to identify threats and prevent similar events from happening again. The forum therefore presented reporting as a tool for learning and improvement, not simply as a process for assigning blame.
Healthcare professionals were also encouraged to examine the root causes of problems. These may include human error, at-risk behaviour or weaknesses in the wider system.
2) Accountability should lead to improvement.
The discussions highlighted the need for accountability alongside a fair examination of what went wrong. The forum cautioned against immediately blaming an individual when a problem occurs, particularly when wider system weaknesses may have contributed to the outcome.
This approach does not remove professional responsibility. Instead, it encourages healthcare facilities to identify the conditions that allowed a problem to happen and to take action to reduce the risk of recurrence.
Proper patient identification, adherence to safety protocols and effective communication across healthcare teams were identified as essential parts of that process.
3) Basic practices remain critical.
The forum also drew attention to the importance of basic patient needs and the availability of essential supplies. These details can influence how patients experience care and can form part of the wider patient-safety environment.
“If a patient gets a good service in the consulting room and goes to the washroom and there’s no tissue, it affects patient safety,” Dr Tommy said.
Healthcare professionals were reminded to take all surgical procedures seriously, including minor operations. The forum also stressed the need for continuous training and ongoing quality improvement.
4) Nurses play a central role in safe care.
For nurses, the forum emphasised the importance of welcoming patients, providing accurate information and offering the assistance they need throughout their care.
Nurses were reminded that every healthcare worker has a role to play in protecting patients and upholding professional duties. Proper patient identification, adherence to protocols and the reporting of near misses were highlighted as important measures.
The forum also urged healthcare facilities to investigate the root causes of problems involving nurses and other staff while maintaining accountability and fairness.
5) General practitioners urged to make safety part of everyday care.
General practitioners were encouraged to make patient safety part of routine healthcare delivery and to ensure that patients receive the right treatment.
The forum called for stronger engagement with patients and health workers, open reporting of safety concerns and effective communication between teams.
It also highlighted the importance of proper regulation and registration, continuous professional training, reliable equipment and sustained safety measures.
6) Ghana needs better patient-safety data.
Dr Tommy called for improved patient-safety data in Ghana and urged healthcare institutions to measure what matters.
Better data can help facilities identify recurring risks, monitor progress and direct attention to areas where patients remain vulnerable. Without reliable information, healthcare providers may find it difficult to determine whether safety measures are producing meaningful improvements.
The forum’s overall message was that safer healthcare depends on collective action. Doctors, nurses, general practitioners, patients and health facilities all have a role in identifying risks, reporting concerns, following protocols and learning from what goes wrong.
By strengthening reporting, improving patient identification, supporting effective teams and maintaining safety measures over time, healthcare professionals can help reduce avoidable harm and improve healthcare delivery across Ghana.
Watch the full stream below:
