World Patient Safety Day 2024: 17th September
Happy world patient safety day! World patient safety day is an annual campaign from the World Health Organisation to highlight the importance of patient safety. We appreciate and celebrate all the hard work Healthcare Scientists do on a daily basis towards patient safety!
This year, the theme is “Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety” and has the following 4 key objectives:
- Raise global awareness of errors in diagnosis that contribute to patient harm and emphasise the pivotal role of correct, timely and safe patient diagnosis in improving patient safety.
- 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.
- Foster collaboration among policy-makers, health care leaders, health workers, patient organizations, and other stakeholders in advancing correct, timely and safe diagnosis.
- Empower patients and families to actively engage with health workers and health care leaders to improve diagnostic processes.
Check out the key actions you can take to help improve patient safety in diagnosis here!
Visit the WHO’s World Patient Safety Day Resource Centre
A word from AHCS Deputy Registrar, Jude Savage:
“Healthcare Scientists work in a range of different roles depending on their qualifications, experience, and level of specialisation. Their work is integral to making diagnoses by providing quality assured services at this stage of the patient care pathway; from diagnoses, decisions are made about an individual’s treatment options to produce the best possible outcomes.
There are many ways healthcare scientists contribute to patient safety, fundamentally by adhering to professional standards of behaviour and practice on which safe and good working is founded.
For example, this may include activities to ensure the accuracy of test results, like checking equipment is working properly and performing tests via recognised standardised protocols.
In addition, Healthcare Scientists contribute to a safe system by having strong communication skills, safeguarding vulnerable patients, fulfilling their duty of candour and addressing individual cares needs to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion.
They are also in a key position to contribute their valuable insights when things go wrong, as despite the right intentions, they do. These insights have the power to prevent reoccurrence of patient harm in the wider healthcare system. Please join us in supporting WHO World Patient Safety Day.”
Patient Safety Learning (PSL) Hub
the hub is an award-winning platform to share learning for patient safety. It offers a powerful combination of tools, resources, stories, ideas, case studies and good practice to anyone who wants to make care safer for patients. Its communities of interest give people a place to discuss patient safety concerns and how to address them.
In recognition of World Patient Safety Day 2024, the PSL Hub have shared a variety of content that highlights the importance of Patient Safety content, themed around this year’s theme of improving diagnosis.
Check out their content on their website – membership is free.
A word from Patient Safety Learning Hub:
“Avoidable harm in health and care is driven by the failure to address the complex systemic causes that underpin this. To tackle this, we believe it is important that patient safety is not just seen as another priority, but as a core purpose of health and care. We can make significant steps towards improving diagnosis for patient safety by addressing the systems-based issues and cognitive factors that can lead to diagnostic errors.”
