Believe it or not, industries with a perceived higher risk, such as the aviation and nuclear industries have a much better safety record than health care does which reports more than 3 million mortalities annually due to unsafe care. In other words, 1 in every 10 patients is harmed in health care.
With an aim to curb these preventable deaths and injuries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently released the first-ever patient safety rights charter outlining the core rights of all patients in the context of safety of health care.
The charter also sought to assist governments and other stakeholders to ensure the voices of patients are heard and their right to safe health care is protected. Patient safety is the avoidance of unintended or unexpected harm to people during the provision of health care.
Most of the mistakes that lead to harm do not occur as a result of the practices of one or a group of health and care workers.
Rather, these occur due to system or process failures, underlining the importance of understanding the underlying causes of errors in medical care.
In low-to-middle income countries, as many as 4 in 100 people die from unsafe care. Some of the most common sources of patient harm are medication errors, surgical errors, health care-associated infections, sepsis, diagnostic errors and patient falls, according to the WHO.
A string of factors such as system and organisational factors, technological factors, human factors and behavior besides patient-related factors and others are responsible for these untimely deaths. There needs to be a shift from the traditional blaming approach to a more system-based thinking, according to the global health body. The charter was announced following a conference on September 12 and 13 at WHO headquarters in Geneva and online which saw participation from all six WHO regions participated in it, including patient advocates and representatives of patients’ organisations.
A storytelling toolkit to guide patients and families in sharing their experience related to harmful events within health care and Global Knowledge Sharing Platform that will support the exchange of global resources, best practices, tools and resources related to patient safety were released at the event.
The majority of patient harm is avoidable and engaging patients, families and caregivers is one of the most essential techniques for minimising harm, the WHO said.
Patient safety is a collective responsibility, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a press statement. “Health systems must work hand-in-hand with patients, families, and communities, so that patients can be informed advocates in their own care and every person can receive the safe, dignified, and compassionate care they deserve.”