World Patient Safety Day

• Raising awareness of patient safety challenges associated with non-communicable diseases across all stages of healthcare delivery, while considering disease-related factors, health system challenges, and influencing social determinants.
• Empowering patients and communities to actively participate in identifying risks and collaborating with healthcare practitioners and decision-makers in developing solutions.
• Encouraging relevant stakeholders to integrate patient safety principles into legislation, policies, strategies, and programmes related to non-communicable diseases.
• Strengthening the capacities of healthcare workers to implement safer practices, including accurate diagnosis, safe care practices, and effective patient engagement.

• Raise global awareness of safety risks in paediatric and newborn care across all healthcare settings, emphasizing the specific needs of children, families, and caregivers.
• Mobilize governments, healthcare organizations, professional bodies, and civil society to implement sustainable strategies for safer care for newborns and children.
• Empower parents, caregivers, and children through education, awareness, and active participation in healthcare.
• Advocate for strengthening research on patient safety in paediatric and newborn care.

World Patient Safety Day is being celebrated annually on September 17, aiming to enhance global understanding and solidarity towards promoting patient safety. This year's theme, “Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety," underscores the significance of accurate and timely diagnoses in preventing patient harm. Diagnostic errors, contributing to 16% of preventable harm, often result from a mix of cognitive and system factors, emphasizing the need for comprehensive and systematic interventions.​

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The slogan for 2024, “Get it right, make it safe!", encourages multifaceted strategies involving patients, families, healthcare workers, and leaders to reduce diagnostic errors. Key interventions include thorough patient history assessments, clinical examinations, improved access to diagnostic tests, and the implementation of technology-based solutions.

Objectives for WPSD 2024:

1. Raise global awareness of errors in diagnosis contributing to patient harm and emphasize the pivotal role of correct, timely and safe diagnosis in improving patient safety.
2. Give prominence to diagnostic safety in patient safety policy and clinical practice at all levels of health care, aligned with the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030.
3. Foster collaboration among policy-makers, health care leaders, health workers, patient organizations, and other stakeholders in advancing correct, timely and safe diagnosis.
4. Empower patients and families to actively engage with health workers and health care leaders to improve diagnostic processes.

To mark the da​​y, various activities such as national campaigns, social media initiatives. Iconic landmarks and buildings will be illuminated in orange to symbolize the commitment to improving diagnostic safety.

For more information, contact us on WPSD@spsc.gov.sa

Awareness Materials:

WHO – World Patient Safety Day:

Medications are the most widely utilized interventions in health care, and medication-related harm constitutes the greatest proportion of the total preventable harm due to unsafe care, let alone the economic and psychological burden imposed by such harm. Acknowledging this substantial burden and recognizing the complexity of medication-related harm prevention and reduction. the theme of World Patient Safety Day 2022 is “Medication Safety".

For the WHO Campaign Materials, Click here

WHO Medication Safety Webinar Series Click here​​​