Medical accidents account for over 3 million deaths yearly – Expert

By Bamigbola Gbolagunte

A don, Professor Leroy Edozien has lamented the high rate of medical accidents globally, disclosing that the incidents accounts for over three million deaths every year across the world.

He made this disclosure at the third University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED) Ondo, Postgraduate School Interdisciplinary Discourse Lecture.

Edozien, who holds degrees in basic medical sciences, medicine and law, described patient safety incident, also known as “medical accident” as “an event or circumstance that could have resulted, or did result in unnecessary harm to a patient.”

He stated that “patient safety incidents include but are not limited to medication errors, patient misidentification, blood transfusion errors and  diagnostic errors among others.”

The don who also teaches at UNIMED explained that the epidemiology of patient safety is astounding but poorly appreciated.

He said: “It is estimated that across the world, one in every 10 patients is harmed in health care, one in four hospitalisations result in harm in low-to-middle income countries (LMICs), one in 24 people die from unsafe hospital care and a national survey of doctors, pharmacists and nurses in Nigeria shows the prevalence of self-reported medication errors was 47 per cent.”

“These statistics have grave implications for patients, their families, clinicians and the country. The implications, among others, include physical trauma, psychological trauma, emotional distress and financial devastation,” he added.

The don, who gave several real life occurrences in Nigeria and globally, recommended interventions to reduce the prevalence of patient safety incidents.

Specifically, he said “clinical governance and patient safety education and training” would help a great deal.

Speaking earlier, the Dean of Postgraduate School, Professor Michael Asuzu, said “the objective of the lecture series is to get academics in UNIMED that have worked and or had research activities that reflected the interdisciplinary or inter-professional cooperation that is part of the UNIMED desired ethos to come and share those experiences.”