World Patient Safety Day was established by the 72nd World Health Assembly, in May 2019, and an endorsement for the Day to be marked annually on 17 September. World Patient Safety Day builds on a series of successful annual Global Ministerial Summits on Patient Safety, which started in London in 2016.
The overall objectives of World Patient Safety Day are to enhance global understanding of patient safety, increase public engagement in the safety of health care and promote global actions to enhance patient safety, and reduce patient harm. The origin of the Day is firmly grounded in the fundamental principle of medicine – First, do no harm.
The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled the huge challenges and risks health workers are facing globally including healthcare-associated infections, violence, stigma, psychological and emotional disturbances, illness, and even death. Furthermore, working in stressful environments makes health workers more prone to errors which can lead to patient harm. Therefore, the World Patient Safety Day 2020.
Purpose of World Patient Safety Day
- Raise global awareness about the importance of health worker safety.
- Engage multiple stakeholders and adopt multimodal strategies to improve the safety of health workers and patients
- Implement urgent and sustainable actions by all stakeholders which recognize and invest in the safety of health workers, as a priority for patient safety
- Provide due recognition of health workers’ dedication and hard work, particularly amid the current fight against COVID-19
