NIHR North West London Patient Safety Research Collaboration hosted delegation from Saudi Patient Safety Center

On 18 July  2024, four senior staff members from the Saudi Patient Safety Center (SPSC) visited Imperial College London’s St Mary’s Campus to hear from researchers from the NIHR North West London Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC) and the Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI). The full day of presentations opened with a keynote speech from Dr Mike Durkin, Senior Patient Safety Advisor at IGHI and Chair of the NIHR Patient Safety Research Collaborative Network. Mike reminded the group of the prominent role Saudi Arabia has played in bringing attention to the importance of patient safety globally through events such as the Global Ministerial Summits.

Ms Melanie Leis, interim NWL PSRC Centre Manager, started the morning session by sharing an overview of the PSRC. This was followed by project presentations by PSRC researchers. Dr Ana Luisa Neves shared findings from her latest research in patient safety of new care delivery models such as remote consultations. Dr Phoebe Averill followed with a presentation on the Isla for Frailty project, which looks at the use of video recordings to support care delivery for elderly, frail patients. PhD student Ricky Odedra gave an overview of his project, which is looking at the impact of language barriers in patient safety for those whose preferred language is not English. Calandra Feather, also a PhD student, followed this with a presentation on Dosium Touchdose, a patient-specific, indication-based prescribing support tool. The morning sessions closed with a presentation by Dr Kate Grailey on the Change Lab and some of its behavioural interventions which are of particular relevance to patient safety, such as interventions to improve hand washing in acute settings.

The afternoon session included presentations from the SPSC. Mr Yahya Daehy, Head of Strategy, shared an overview of Saudi Arabia’s Healthcare System and gave an overview of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious Patient Safety National Strategy. Mr Ahmed Alnajjar, Head of the Project Management Office, shared an overview of the SPSC and its initiatives, as well as an overview of patient safety culture over the years. We heard from Dr Rabab Alkutbe, Head of Research and Innovation and Manager of the Patient Safety Program, about the patient safety incident reporting system in Saudi Arabia and the national Maternal Patient Safety Program. She also gave an overview of the national study to estimate the incidence and contributing factors of adverse events and their economic burden in Saudi Arabia. Mr Mohammed Al qarni, the senior manager of the Strategy and Project Management Office, facilitated the discussions and answered the inquiries.  At the end of the session, Dr Alkutbe shared the proposed card of the UK-Saudi initiative for the future healthcare partnership between the UK and Saudi Arabia proposed by the Saudia Arabia Ministry of Health and the UK for further discussion.

The day closed with a discussion about areas of potential collaboration. From the SPSC there was a particular interest in looking at how to embed research into patient safety improvement in Saudi Arabia and promoting patient and public involvement. From an IGHI and PSRC perspective, there was an interest in learning about successful initiatives in Saudi Arabia and how these may help inform decision-making locally. Teams will be in touch over the coming months to further refine opportunities for collaboration.