Every year, September 17 is celebrated as World Patient Safety Day. The World Health Organization (WHO) established this day to raise awareness about patient safety and promote actions to improve safety in healthcare. This day aims to encourage people to come together to achieve safer healthcare practices and address the global problem of the significant burden of harm caused by unsafe medical practices.
The day highlights the need to improve healthcare systems and practices, prioritising patient wellbeing. With an estimated 134 million adverse events occurring in hospitals in low- and middle-income countries each year, reducing preventable harm and deaths is crucial.
World Patient Safety Day 2024: Theme
World Patient Safety Day aims to strengthen patient safety by raising public awareness and promoting collaboration between patients, healthcare workers, policy makers and leaders. The theme of World Patient Safety Day 2024 is “Improving diagnosis for patient safety”, emphasizing the critical role of accurate and timely diagnosis in protecting patients and improving health outcomes. The motto of this day is “Do it right, do it safe!”, which highlights the need for accurate diagnosis and ensuring patient safety.
A diagnosis determines a patient’s health status and is critical to providing the patient with the necessary care and treatment. An error in a patient’s diagnosis occurs when an accurate and timely explanation of the patient’s health problems is not provided, such as delays, incorrect or missed diagnoses, or failure to communicate the diagnosis to the patient.
World Patient Safety Day 2024: History
In 2019, the 72nd World Health Assembly adopted a resolution establishing World Patient Day as a global health priority. Every year, WHO launches a global campaign focusing on different themes and patient safety, such as safe childbirth, drug safety and patient and caregiver empowerment.
The movement aims to gain momentum by recognizing unsafe healthcare practices that contribute significantly to avoidable harm and costs to health systems globally.
World Patient Safety Day 2024: Importance
World Patient Day 2024 aims to highlight the importance of patient safety, educate healthcare providers, patients and the general public, reduce risks and prevent medical errors. This day draws attention to unsafe healthcare practices. It also highlights global collaboration between countries, healthcare organizations, policy makers and professionals and encourages people to improve safety standards worldwide.
This day also provides an opportunity to highlight some critical safety issues, such as medication errors or maternal and newborn health. It helps to address critical areas where improvements can reduce harm to patients. This day also encourages patients to be involved in important decisions about their healthcare, thereby improving communication with medical professionals so that they can make informed decisions.
Another significance of World Patient Day is to promote stronger policies and regulations that prioritize healthcare safety and demand changes that lead to better and safer healthcare environments. It also raises awareness about the need to promote viable strategies aimed at reducing preventable harm, thereby improving health outcomes and saving lives.
First published: September 17, 2024 | 11:37 am IS
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the post for any purpose.
We respect the intellectual property rights of content creators. If you are the owner of any material featured on our website and have concerns about its use, please contact us. We are committed to addressing any copyright issues promptly and will remove any material within 2 days of receiving a request from the rightful owner.