Institute of Global Health Innovation & Patient Safety Watch: Global State of Patient Safety 2025 (29 January 2026)

Summary

Produced by Patient Safety Watch in partnership with the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, this report considers the current state of patient safety around the world. The report compares patient safety performance across 38 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, using four internationally comparable indicators:

• Maternal mortality
• Neonatal disorders
• Treatable mortality
• Deaths due to the adverse effects of medical treatment

On this basis, Norway ranks first in the world for patient safety, while the UK ranks 21st, unchanged since their previous report in 2023.

Content

Based on its findings, the report updates and expands on the three recommendations made in their 2023 report:

1. To create a more comprehensive set of global patient safety indicators, they encourage international organisations focused on safety and quality to develop a roadmap to improve data coverage in LMICs. The example of maternal and neonatal safety data shows how collective action can lead to global coverage, supporting safety improvement efforts.
2. To support improved adoption of best practice in patient safety, they advise countries to use our patient safety dashboard, international insights, and ambitions for national patient safety systems to learn from best practice in core aspects of patient safety. These tools complement emerging resources, including the WHO Global Knowledge Sharing Platform for Patient Safety.
3. To help ensure patients, families and carers become active partners in the delivery of safe care, they advocate national and international action to address the inequities in safe care identified in this report. Their case studies demonstrate how patients and the public can become part of the solution, helping to design and inform national policies and interventions for safer care.