KUWAIT: Health Minister Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah issued a ministerial decree to form a technical committee to review and upgrade patient safety procedures when using anesthetics during surgeries and dental work. This comes in the aftermath of a child's death at a dental clinic in Fahaheel medical center recently, which initial reports indicate had happened after he was given local anesthetic during treatment.
The committeewill be headed by the ministry's undersecretary for technical affairs, alongwith the chairman of the anesthesia departments' council, head of theanesthesia college at Kuwait Institute for Medical Specialties, director ofquality and approval, director of drugs registration and supervision, directorof dental medicine department and a senior legal specialist.
The committeewill review procedures and local and general anesthetic policies in hospitals,specialized centers and clinics, follow new international upgrades in the fieldof anesthesia and related medicines, interactions and resulting effects, anduses and cautions related to their use. It proposes upgraded work policy foranesthetic care before making the intervention in various specialties, making amechanism for medical auditing using scientific indicators to follow theimplementation of related policies within healthy environment protocols.
It will alsocontact specialized international centers and organizations to benefit fromtheir reports in this regard. The committee's work will be for one month fromthe date of its first meeting, and the chairman will submit a report includingresults and recommendations to be approved by the minister.
By MeshaalAl-Enezi