Review on Patient Safety in Healthcare Sector in India

This review focuses on patient safety within the rapidly expanding health care environment in India, which has become increasingly multidimensional with its duality of public and private aspects. Yet, despite substantial economic development and policy investment such as NPSIF, the sector remains beset by challenges. Main problems are a high number of avoidable medical errors, in terms of medication (eg documentation errors, administration errors, prescription errors) and healthcare associated infections (HAIs) (often much higher than in the rest of the world). At the root are structural issues: a fragmented regulatory landscape with inadequate mandatory reporting, large differences in public versus private funding and product resourcing and a weak primary healthcare system. Cultural issues such as hierarchy and no-decision-making error-free reporting are also preventing change. Although technological progress provides an opportunity for improvement, these are likely to widen existing imbalances between the “haves” and the “have nots”. The review suggests that addressing the challenge of patient safety in India demands long-term, multi-faceted strategies that approach systemic and cultural transformations, in addition to greater financial investment for public and primary health.