Improving patient safety will bring benefits in driving up standards and quality by helping build a safer health system and it will also help to improve the confidence of patients in the healthcare system, President Edward Fenech Adami said yesterday.

Opening the conference “Patient safety 2007 – developing strategic approaches” at the SAS Radisson Hotel in St Julian’s, Dr Fenech Adami said that patient safety was important to all.

The challenge of the health system of every country was to provide high-quality care and to implement good practices so as to reduce the risks involved, he said.

There was enormous potential for further developing European and international cooperation and collaboration to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of all health systems. Collaboration led to shared expertise and the most effective use of the available resources; through collaboration it was also possible to benefit from best practices to raise standards.

Realising this potential had been one of the factors behind increasing cooperation on health services in recent years.

Initiatives were underway within major international and regional bodies, such

as the World Health Organisation, the European Union and the Common-wealth, Dr Fenech Adami said.

Such events as the conference were important because sharing of experiences and information led to a coherent and effective approach, he added. They also served as an opportunity for exchange, stimulating the further development of a patient safety culture in the healthcare sectors of countries.

Moreover, while the priority remained patient safety and overall quality in health

systems, working collaboratively enabled all to turn the variations between different systems into a shared resource from which all can learn.