H.E. Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Al Saidi, Minister of Health inaugurated on Wednesday the first Consultation meeting on developing a national healthcare accreditation at Al Wahat Club. The meeting, which is organized by the Ministry of Health (MOH) represented by the Directorate General of Quality Assurance Centre (QAC), was attended by H.E. Dr. Sultan Ya’rub Al Busaidi, MOH’s Health Advisor, and number of Al Shura Council members, with the participation 150 of MOH’s Top officials as well as number of experts in this field from the Sultanate and abroad.

H.E. Minister of Health affirmed in this event that it is necessary to have a national healthcare accreditation system in the Sultanate besides the continuous advance in the services provided. Therefore, the Sultanate represented by the MOH is seeking to establish a national accreditation system that complies with the international standards and requirements and meets the needs of the coming phase of the MOH’s nine fifth plan  (2016-2020).

The Advance Accreditation and Standard Development meeting aimed at highlighting features of high performing Accreditation Programs and providing insight and guidance for evidence based practices in Standards Development in healthcare. The meeting provides also an ongoing mentorship and partnership in the development of a National Accreditation System.

On this occasion, Dr. Ahmed Al Madhari, director general of Quality Assurance Center stated in his speech that the health systems worldwide have worked on establishing and utilizing assessment tools that promote the regulation and surveillance of the health institutions performance and thus increasing quality level and ensure patient safety. The high level tool among them is ‘accreditation’,

Later, Dr. Mondher Lataief, technical officer of the Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) provided an overview of the accreditation in the region based on the analytical study he carried out. Dr. Lataief commented that according to the data, countries are at different levels of progress with the implementation of accreditation. At the policy level the accreditation needs to be clearly supported with Vision and objectives, Definition of stakeholders, Governance and coordination, and supportive environment and availability of resources.

After that, the sessions began with standard development to highlight the requirements needed for developing accreditation standard. The second session shed light on experiences in areas of funding, surveyors’ selection, and management of day to day activities. The last session of the first day reviewed international experiences in accreditation.

It should be noted that Accreditation is a process that demonstrates a health facility compliance with the developed standards established by a recognized accreditation organization. The accreditation program intents at developing service provision systems to enhance the quality of healthcare services and accordingly improving the intended outcomes of the treatment.