What is World Patient Safety Day?

World Patient Safety Day is an initiative to create awareness and promote global cooperation to improve patient safety. Every year, millions of patients suffer injuries or die due to unsafe and poor-quality healthcare, making it one of the leading causes of death and disability globally. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognises that patient safety is a global health priority and has endorsed the establishment of World Patient Safety Day to be celebrated annually.

As a training provider who serves the healthcare community, we recognise the significance of World Patient Safety Day and aim to raise awareness about its importance. In this blog, we’ll delve deeper into the day's purpose and look at the NHS’s approach to patient safety.

Engaging patients for safety

Numerous studies have shown that when patients are treated as partners in their care, they significantly improve patient satisfaction and health outcomes. By actively involving patients in their healthcare journey, they can contribute to not only their own safety but also the overall safety of the healthcare system.

The goals for World Patient Safety Day in 2023 are to emphasise the importance of safe healthcare as a basic right for all patients, regardless of their location. Additionally, it recognises the vital role that patient and family engagement plays in developing safer health systems. This involves including patients and families at all levels of healthcare, from making shared decisions during care to policy-making and planning. Moreover, it is crucial to acknowledge that no patient should suffer harm in healthcare. To achieve this, it is essential to value the opinions of patients, listen to their experiences, and learn from them.

What is patient safety?

Patient Safety is a healthcare discipline that addresses the growing complexity of healthcare systems and the need to reduce patient harm. It focuses on preventing and reducing risks, errors, and harm during the provision of healthcare. Patient safety is fundamental to delivering quality health services that are effective, safe, and person-centred while also being timely, equitable, integrated, and efficient.

Successful implementation of patient safety strategies requires clear policies, strong leadership, data-driven improvements, skilled healthcare professionals, and active patient involvement. It is an essential aspect of nursing care, aiming to prevent errors and harm, and promotes continuous learning and improvement. Patient safety contributes to creating reliable healthcare systems that prioritise the safety and well-being of patients.

Key facts on patient safety

Unsafe care can result in adverse events that are among the top 10 causes of death and disability worldwide. In high-income countries, approximately 1 in 10 patients experience harm while receiving hospital care, and almost 50% of these incidents are preventable. In low- and middle-income countries, there are 134 million adverse events each year in hospitals due to unsafe care, resulting in 2.6 million deaths. Globally, as many as 4 in 10 patients suffer harm in primary and outpatient healthcare; up to 80% of this harm can be avoided.

Patient safety goals

The primary goal of patient safety is to prevent, reduce, and mitigate risks, errors, and harm that occur to patients during the provision of healthcare. A cornerstone of patient safety is continuous improvement that is based on learning from errors and adverse events. Ensuring patient safety is essential to delivering quality healthcare services that are prompt, fair, coordinated, efficient, effective, and centred on the patient.

Causes of patient harm

A comprehensive healthcare system takes into account the increasing complexity in healthcare settings that can lead to human error. Several factors can increase the risk of harm, such as poor communication between healthcare providers, failure to verify medication before administering it, and a lack of patient involvement in their care. When multiple hidden errors combine, they can result in a visible error that affects the patient. It is unrealistic to expect flawless performance from professionals in high-stress environments with complex responsibilities, and therefore, it is impossible to eliminate all errors.

Patient Safety and Universal Health Coverage (UHC)

Ensuring the safety of patients is crucial to strengthening healthcare systems and achieving effective UHC under Sustainable Development Goal 3, which aims to promote health and well-being for all at all ages. A healthy and safe healthcare system provides financial protection against risk and access to affordable and high-quality healthcare services, medicines, and vaccines for everyone.

By providing safe services, healthcare providers can reduce costs associated with patient harm and improve the overall efficiency of the healthcare system. Moreover, it can help to rebuild the community's confidence in their healthcare system.

The NHS approach to patient safety

The NHS is deeply committed to providing safe and effective care to patients, as reflected in the NHS Patient Safety Strategy report. The strategy emphasises the importance of a comprehensive understanding of patient safety and equipping patients, staff, and partners with the necessary skills and opportunities to improve safety in every aspect of the healthcare system. By fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement, the NHS collects and analyses data to identify areas of harm and develops targeted solutions to address them.

The strategy underscores the importance of involving patients, families, and caregivers in decision-making in order to enhance safety and encourage mutual accountability among all stakeholders. The NHS provides comprehensive training and education programs to ensure that healthcare professionals have the necessary skills to deliver safe care. By prioritising transparency and promoting a culture of safety, the NHS is committed to making significant advances in patient safety for the benefit of all individuals accessing its services.

Conclusion

Each year, World Patient Safety Day is observed to encourage global collaboration in enhancing patient safety. Patient safety is a field that deals with the intricacies of healthcare systems and aims to prevent and decrease risks and harm. It is crucial for delivering quality, individual-centred care. Unsafe care resulting in unfavourable events is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide.

Patient safety goals encompass preventing, reducing, and mitigating risks and errors and learning from them. A safe and healthy healthcare system is crucial for achieving universal health coverage. The NHS's approach to patient safety emphasises continuous learning, engaging patients and caregivers, and implementing comprehensive training programs to ensure safe care.

At The Mandatory Training Group, we believe that patient safety is of utmost importance and that everyone deserves safe and effective care. We offer a wide range of training courses in healthcare and social care to ensure that professionals are equipped to provide top-quality care. Click here to view our training courses.

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