World Patient Safety Day 2022: History, theme and significance

Observed every year since 2019, the World Patient Safety Day is marked worldwide on 17 September in a bid to raise awareness regarding the safety of patients and to encourage individuals to commit their lives towards making healthcare safe and reducing patient harm. Notably, as observed by the World Health Organization (WHO) along with its international partners and other nations, the day also aims to increase public engagement concerning patient safety and care. This holds extra significance at a time when the world has been facing the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year as well, as WHO gears up to celebrate the World Patient Safety Day, it looks to create awareness regarding medication-related harms and errors.

“Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of avoidable harm in health care across the world. Medication errors occur when weak medication systems and human factors such as fatigue, poor environmental conditions or staff shortages affect the safety of the medication use process”, the WHO states on its website.

History: World Patient Safety Day 2022

In May 2019, the 72nd World Health Assembly established the World Patient Safety Day while adopting Resolution WHA72.6 on “Global action on patient safety". During this time, it also granted permission for the day to be held annually on 17 September.

Theme and Significance: World Patient Safety Day 2022

While each year is dedicated to a different theme, this year the WHO has highlighted unsafe medication practices and medication errors in the health sector. Stating that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has significantly exacerbated the risk of medication errors and associated medication-related harm, WHO has selected ‘Medication Safety’ as this year’s theme, with the slogan ‘Medication Without Harm’.

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The organisation stated that weak medication systems and human factors such as fatigue, poor environmental conditions, or staff shortages can affect the safety of the medication use process, adding that these can result in severe harm, disability, and even death of the individual.

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