State hospital staff to receive training from Accreditation Canada

Training sessions will take place in two major public hospitals in Nicosia, starting today, as part of the accreditation process that the SHSO (OKYpY) has initiated, under the guidance of Accreditation Canada.

During a press conference at the SHSO headquarters today, the Organisation announced that the staff at the Nicosia General Hospital and Makarios III Hospital will be trained to incorporate 19 and 17 international standards, respectively.

On behalf of Accreditation Canada, Yuliya Shcherbina said that the training will kick off with orientation sessions, that will provide both hospitals with knowledge about international standards of excellence, teamwork and assessment methodologies. She added that both hospitals will also have a chance to perform a self-assessment process and work on improvement plans under the guidance of Accreditation Canada.

She added that evaluations of healthcare services will be performed, against the standards of excellence, leading to a report detailing the areas of improvement, as well as the areas of success. “Accreditation is a continuous quality improvement process and we are very pleased that SHSO decided to embark on this journey and we will do our best to guide and support through the entire process and help reach the goals,” she concluded.

OKYpY head of the Quality Procedures Unit, Nicolas Nicolaou, said that the training aims to enable the incorporation of international standards, both in individual clinics and departments, as well as in the hospitals' general operation. He explained that the training will last for a week, but the Accreditation Canada team will remain in contact with OKYpY on a weekly basis.

Through the accreditation process, Nicolaou said, hospitals will be accredited with internationally renowned quality standards, something which is expected to benefit professionals and patients alike. OKYpY will monitor the accreditation process in these two hospitals in Nicosia and will include more hospitals in the accreditation process.

Accreditation Canada is a non-profit organization, established in Canada in 1958, currently present in 38 countries, including several European countries, such as Italy, Belgium, Luxemburg, Croatia and Slovenia.