Abu Dhabi: Asking your doctor questions about your own health can go a long way in helping doctors to avoid medical errors, said doctors on Thursday at the second International Pharmacy Conference of Al Noor Hospital in Abu Dhabi.

Deaths due to malpractice statistics in the UAE were not available but according to a study conducted by John T. James, PhD, of Patient Safety America, an advocacy group in the US, between 210,000 and 400,000 people die each year in the US because of preventable medical errors.

Medical errors are the third largest cause of death in the US, after heart disease and cancer.

The number of medical errors occurring in the Middle East is not available because no proper system has been developed in the region to track such cases, senior doctors in Abu Dhabi told Gulf News on Friday. The UAE authorities have started building such a system.

Health Authority-Abu Dhabi has made a regulation that obliges hospitals to report medical errors to the authority, Dr Kassem Alom, CEO of Al Noor Hospital Group, who is a specialist in internal medicine, said.

He said patients have the right to ask doctors why each medicine is prescribed, possible reaction and other questions.

He spoke to Gulf News on the sidelines of the conference.

Medical problems may arise due to adverse interaction between certain types of medicines [which should not be prescribed together], and between certain foods and some medicines, Dr Alom said.

Bad handwriting of doctors, misread by pharmacists, used to result in patients getting wrong medicines, he said. However new technologies — software that warns problematic combination of medicines and electronic prescriptions — are minimising such errors, Dr Alom said.

In a multicultural community like the UAE, language may be a barrier between doctor and patient so that everything may have to be explained in patient’s own language to avoid any confusion, he said. The patient has the right to demand such services, the doctor said.

Medication counselling to patients that requires medical professionals to counsel patients about the administration of medicines, compliance of medical advice etc is very important in this regard, Dr Riad Abdul Karim, Medical Director of Al Noor Hospital, Khalifa Street Branch, said.

Medication counselling is the joint responsibility of all medical professionals — doctors, nurses and pharmacists, he said.

This practice, part of the “medication reconciliation” concept that gives proper guidance to patients after they are discharged from hospitals, is comparatively new in the region, Dr Karim said.

Hospitals need more resources [therefore investment] to provide this service and improve overall quality, he said.

Many UAE hospitals including Al Noor have started providing this service as part of the standards of Joint Commission Accreditation of the US, Dr Karim said.

He added that it was important that medication counselling be given verbally as illiterate and elderly patients may not be able to read.