RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Health Minister Fahad Al-Jalajel recently participated in the 5th Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety in Montreux, Switzerland. Delivering a speech at the conference, Al-Jalajel voiced Saudi Arabia’s commitment to fully supporting efforts and initiatives seeking to protect patients and enhance their safety. The minister said that the Kingdom is welcoming large-scale partnerships in training, knowledge-sharing and expertise exchange. Al-Jalajel added that Saudi Arabia has played an effective role at the international level, attending all previous ministerial conferences and hosting the fourth summit, has issued the Jeddah Declaration and has also played a pivotal role in submitting and endorsing the 72nd World Health Assembly resolution on patient safety. He also indicated that the Kingdom’s commitment to the Global Patient Safety Action Plan can be seen in adding patient safety to the agenda of the G20 during the Kingdom’s presidency in 2020 and in establishing the Saudi Patient Safety Center in 2017. Al-Jalajel noted that the Kingdom is committed to achieving sustainable development and comprehensive health coverage as well as supporting regional and international efforts related to patient safety. According to the World Health Organization’s website, this year’s summit covered patient safety in the context of COVID-19 in different technical domains through a broader, public health policy perspective. “Successful and sustainable implementation efforts undertaken in different and diverse settings and countries were highlighted during the summit,” according to the statement.