Distinguished guests, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to everyone joining us today, wherever you are in the world, and thank you for joining us today.
For thousands of years, medicine has operated on a fundamental principle: primum non nocere – first do no harm.
That principle is as true today as in the time of Hippocrates. No one should be harmed while seeking care.
And yet, an estimated 2.6 million people die every year in low- and middle- income countries alone due to unsafe care in hospitals.
The human cost is bad enough. These deaths not only deprive families of someone they love, they deprive the economies of these countries of up to 1.6 trillion U.S. dollars each year in lost productivity.
The vast majority of these deaths – and the costs – are avoidable.
I often say that if health care is not safe, it’s not care.
Unsafe care harms people – but it also harms health systems, by eroding trust.
When people are not sure whether it is safe to seek care, they will think twice before seeking care.
The result is a greater burden of disease, greater loss of life, and greater costs to the health system.
The past 18 months has been an unprecedented time for our health systems. Beyond the disease and death caused directly by COVID-19, the pandemic has severely disrupted many essential health services and influenced the safety of care.
Isolation, the infodemic, self-medication and altered health-seeking behaviour will have far reaching effects for patient safety in the coming years.
The pandemic has also highlighted the physical and psychological safety issues of health workers, with clear implications for the safety of the patients they care for.
No country, hospital or clinic can keep its patients safe unless it keeps its health workers safe.
Patient safety has become more critical than ever.
That’s why in May this year, the World Health Assembly adopted the new WHO Global Action Safety Action Plan 2021 - 2030 – the result of years of work and consultations with experts, the public, patient groups, partners and our Member States.
The Action Plan has been developed to support our vision of a world in which no one is harmed in health care, and where every patient receives safe and respectful care, every time, everywhere.
The action plan provides a framework for countries to develop their own national action plans on patient safety.
It builds on seven guiding principles:
Treating patient and families as partners;
Achieving results through collaboration;
Data-driven learning;
Translating evidence into actions;
Adopting policy and actions to context;
Improvement through expertise and experience;
Promoting a safe culture.
I would like to thank and congratulate our team at WHO, and everyone who has contributed to developing the Global Action Plan.
But this is just the beginning of our work. A plan is not worth anything unless it is implemented.
This will require closing several gaps.
First, there is a “knowledge gap” in understanding the extent of the problem and its contributors.
Second, there is a “policy gap”; most health systems don’t have policies for patient safety, or they are fragmented.
Third, there is a “design gap”, with the inadequate application of safety science in many policies, strategies, plans and tools.
Fourth, we need to close the “delivery gap” in putting policies into practice, to make a significant reduction in harm.
And finally, there is the “communication gap”, which can only be closed when best patient safety practices and innovations are collected and shared globally.
WHO is supporting countries to close these gaps by providing guidance, tools and customized technical support through our “Decade of Patient Safety” initiative from 2021 to 2030.
Finally, next month we will celebrate World Patient Safety Day, with the theme of “Safe maternal and newborn care”.
The aim will be not only to highlight patient safety issues in this area of work but also to drive and demonstrate a significant reduction in avoidable harm to mothers and newborns.
Thank you once again to everyone who contributed to the development of this action plan.
I am delighted to formally launch the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021to 2030., and now let’s get to work and implement it.
I thank you.