World Patient Safety Day 2021
For the past three years, Global Public Health has celebrated World Patient Safety Day on 17 September (Resolution WHA 72.6 - Seventy Second World Health Assembly). During the 72nd World Health Assembly in May 2019, all 194 Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO), recognising patient safety as a global health priority, agreed to dedicate a day to this important issue.
More than 134 million adverse events occur each year due to unsafe care in hospitals in low and middle income countries, contributing to 2.6 million deaths each year. Furthermore, according to estimates by the World Health Organisation (WHO - Section: Patient Safety Fact File) 15% of hospital costs in OECD countries (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development - Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation) can be attributed to patient safety problems; of these, 4 out of 10 incur damage or injury in primary and outpatient care that in 80% of cases could be avoided. In the face of these estimates, therefore, there is now an emerging awareness of risk management throughout the health sector.
For this reason, for the past three years, Public Health, recognising patient safety as a global health priority, has chosen to celebrate World Patient Safety Day on 17 September, an important event dedicated to raising awareness of the global issue of patient safety.
The 2021 Day is dedicated to women and newborns with the theme "Safe maternal and newborn care". "Act now for safe & respectful chilbirth' is the slogan chosen this year to emphasise the special focus on maternal and newborn health care in terms of safety, also in light of the significant impact on health status that women and newborns may be exposed to when receiving unsafe care.
This problem has been further aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as reported by recent international data. The emergency has confirmed the need to boost the capacity of the health system in order to respond as effectively as possible to a possible crisis situation, as well as to continue the qualified and motivated commitment of our health workers in order to ensure safe care for patients.
In Italy, the Higher Health Institute dedicated a page https://www.iss.it/biblioteca-centro-documentazione-oms-in-rilievo/-/asset_publisher/QbTBbZo0MN5Y/content/id/5839011 to the Day, while the Italian Ministry of Health celebrated the "Third National Patient Safety Day with a dedicated workshop available at the link https://www.salute.gov.it/portale/sicurezzaCure/dettaglioEventiSicurezzaCure.jsp?lingua=italiano&menu=eventi&p=daeventi&id=584.
Vaccinarsinsardegna.org also wishes, on this important occasion, to further reiterate that "safe care" also includes preventative vaccination, which is often the only effective weapon available to science for the prevention of disabilitating and sometimes even fatal infectious diseases.
