SHARJAH- The Ministry of Health and Prevention, MoHAP, recently held two workshops on training in clinical governance strategy at the Training & Development Centre in Sharjah, as part of its strategy to explore the healthcare future and reinvent health services to improve patient safety, as well as to develop a roadmap.

The three-day event was held in coordination with the World Health Organisation and in the presence of international experts. The first workshop was dedicated to the department and hospital directors, and the Higher Steering Committee for Clinical Governance headed by Dr. Youssif Al Serkal, Assistant Under-Secretary for the Ministry’s Hospitals Sector, to draw up the roadmap and strategic plan. The second workshop was for training the clinical governance committees in hospitals and headed by Assistant Hospital Managers for Medical Affairs to develop the executive plan.

The workshops covered vital topics, including reviewing clinical governance practices for hospitals in the United Kingdom and Italy, strengthening elements of clinical governance as an essential element in healthcare, understanding the structure of clinical governance (current and future) in various healthcare facilities, and exploring ideas, opportunities, enablers, and challenges related to achieving optimal clinical management.

Al Serkal said that organising the two workshops comes in the wake of launching the "Clinical Governance Strategy for Hospitals" under the slogan, "Our Way to Clinical Excellence", as part of the "Clinical Governance Forum" held last November under the patronage of Abdul Rahman bin Mohammed Al-Owais, Minister of Health. "The MoHAP is keen to enhance the capabilities of hospitals and their infrastructure, qualify its medical cadres to enable them to apply the best international standards and practices in the field of clinical governance, while focusing on patient-centric services, and empower the clinical management to form the crux of treatment practices," he said. "The inclusion of the clinical governance system in the MoHAP’s hospitals would help promote performance standards and overall policies, procedures, protocols and clinical work systems, as well as empower the medical team to learn about the latest strategies to develop clinical work, and improve treatment," Al Serkal added.

Dr. Kalthoum Al Baloushi, Director of MoHAP’s Hospitals Administration, said, "The primary goal of the clinical governance workshop is to increase the efficiency of staff and hospitals by making improvements in the clinical performance. Clinical governance has become the backbone of healthcare systems worldwide as an enabling structure, putting patient safety as its top priority."

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