Republic of North Macedonia Ministry of Health: National Plan for Patient Safety 2024-2030

Summary

The National Patient Safety Plan of the Republic North Macedonia is based on a comprehensive assessment of the situation conducted in December 2022, with technical support from the WHO Office for Quality of Care and Patient Safety in Athens. Its vision is that the Republic of North Macedonia will be an environment where no patient will experience harm from an adverse event and every patient will receive safe health care that will be timely, equitable, and available everywhere.

Content

Mission

To implement policies, strategies and practices that are based on evidence, patient experience, appropriate system design, healthcare workforce and partnership in order to eliminate all sources of preventable risks and harm to patients and healthcare workers. 

Main dimensions

The main dimensions for the advancement of the patient safety framework, consequently contributing to the improvement of the quality of care across the country are:

1. Adopting policies that will eliminate preventable harm in health care
2. Establishing stable health care systems
3. Safety of clinical processes
4. Involving the patient and their family in the care
5. Education, skills and safety for healthcare workers
6. Information, research and dealing with risks
7. Synergy, partnership and solidarity

For each of these domains, a group of objectives, activities, subjects in charge of the activities, a rough timeline and possible sources of financing have been developed in a period that is synchronized with the National Health Strategy of the Republic of North Macedonia, until 2030. These elements of the national plan are drawn from the existing results of research, accreditation standards related to the safety of patients, other legal regulations, the mission of international consultants conducted in December 2022, medical practice guides, WHO policy recommendations and other documents. 

Considering the context of the current healthcare system and patient safety situation in the Republic of North Macedonia, four core priorities arise from the main dimensions of the National Plan:

• Training of healthcare professionals
• Awareness and patient engagement
• Establishment of the Committee for Patient Safety
• Data infrastructure and IT-based systems to support patient safety interventions