17/09/2024
Today, 17th September, is World Patient Safety Day.
World Patient Safety Day (WPSD), one of WHO’s global public health initiatives, continues its vital mission in 2024. Established in 2019 by the Seventy-second World Health Assembly through the adoption of resolution WHA72.6 – “Global action on patient safety” – this day is observed annually on 17 September. It is a pivotal event to promote global health and safety, firmly grounded in the core medical principle: “first, do no harm.” The day aims to raise public awareness, enhance global understanding, and foster solidarity and action among Member States to promote patient safety. Each year, a new theme is chosen to address a critical area in patient safety that demands urgent attention.
WPSD 2024 Theme
For 2024, the theme is “Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety,” recognizing the essential role of accurate and timely diagnoses in ensuring patient safety. The resolution WHA72.6 and the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 underscore the importance of safeguarding diagnostic processes. The global action plan encourages countries to adopt strategies that minimize diagnostic errors. These errors, which can stem from a combination of cognitive and systemic factors affecting the recognition, interpretation, and communication of patients’ symptoms and test results, are a significant concern. A diagnostic error involves failing to provide a correct and timely explanation of a patient’s health issue, including delayed, incorrect, or missed diagnoses, or failing to communicate the diagnosis to the patient. Such errors account for nearly 16% of preventable harm in health systems, with most adults likely to encounter at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime. Thus, improving diagnostic processes is imperative.
Under the slogan “Get it Right, Make it Safe!”, concerted efforts are sought to significantly reduce diagnostic errors through multifaceted interventions based on systems thinking, human factors, and active engagement of patients, their families, health workers, and health care leaders. These interventions include thorough patient history documentation, comprehensive clinical examinations, improved access to diagnostic tests, methods to measure and learn from diagnostic errors, and technology-based solutions.
Objectives of World Patient Safety Day 2024
1. Raise Global Awareness: Highlight the impact of diagnostic errors on patient harm and emphasize the critical role of accurate, timely, and safe diagnoses in enhancing patient safety.
2. Promote Diagnostic Safety: Integrate diagnostic safety into patient safety policies and clinical practices at all levels of health care, in alignment with the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030.
3. Foster Collaboration: Encourage cooperation among policymakers, health care leaders, health workers, patient organizations, and other stakeholders to advance accurate, timely, and safe diagnoses.
4. Empower Patients and Families: Enable patients and their families to actively engage with health workers and health care leaders to improve diagnostic processes.
Working Together for Safer Health Care
WPSD 2024 encourages various activities, including national campaigns, social media initiatives, advocacy, and technical events, to be held on and around 17 September. The campaign’s signature gesture of lighting up iconic monuments, landmarks, and public places in orange will continue.
The World Patients Alliance (WPA) organized world-largest WPSD campaigns by organizing over 1600 events in the years 2021, 2022 and 2023.
In 2024, WPA will take the lead again by organizing various events internationally in collaboration with its member organizations elevating the voice of patients in all disease areas and regions of the world.
The WPA invites all stakeholders to join the global campaign, light up the world in orange on 17 September, and take concrete steps toward achieving diagnostic safety.
Together, let’s make health care safer for everyone.
