WHO - Announcing World Patient Safety Day 2022 (4 March 2022)

Summary

The theme for World Patient Safety Day 2022 is Medication Safety. It will take place on 17 September 2022.

Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of avoidable harm in healthcare across the world. Medication errors occur when weak medication systems, and human factors such as fatigue, poor environmental conditions or staff shortages, affect prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, administration and monitoring practices. This can result in severe patient harm, disability and even death. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has significantly exacerbated the risk of medication errors and associated medication-related harm.

The theme builds on the ongoing WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm. It also provides much-needed impetus to take urgent action for reducing medication-related harm through strengthening systems and practices of medication use.

Content

How to get involved in World Patient Safety Day 2022

WHO would like to encourage organisations to participate in World Patient Safety Day 2022 and asks that they:

• share their plans to celebrate.
• share best practices on the theme of Medication Safety that can be used for World Patient Safety Day.

WHO is proposing a wide range of activities for all key stakeholders on and around 17 September 2022, including national campaigns, policy forums, advocacy and technical events, capacity-building initiatives and, as in previous years, lighting up iconic monuments, landmarks and public places in orange (the signature mark of the campaign).

Objectives of World Patient Safety Day 2022

1. RAISE global awareness of the high burden of medication-related harm due to medication errors and unsafe practices, and ADVOCATE urgent action to improve medication safety.
2. ENGAGE key stakeholders and partners in the efforts to prevent medication errors and reduce medication-related harm.
3. EMPOWER patients and families to be actively involved in the safe use of medication.
4. SCALE UP implementation of the WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm.

What is World Patient Safety Day?

Established in 2019, World Patient Safety Day is one of WHO’s global public health days. Global public health days offer great potential to raise awareness and understanding of health issues and mobilise support for action, from the local community to the international stage. World Patient Safety Day is firmly grounded in the fundamental principle of medicine – first do no harm. Its objectives are to increase public awareness and engagement, enhance global understanding, and work towards global solidarity and action by Member States to promote patient safety. Each year, a new theme is selected on a priority patient safety topic to highlight its importance and call for urgent action to address the issue.

You can now find specific WHO resources for this year’s world patient safety day here.