Patient safety

World Patient Safety Day was established at the 72nd World Health Assembly in May 2019. Its aim is to increase public engagement and emphasise the importance of prioritising patient safety on the global agenda, while encouraging action.

Celebrating World Patient Safety Day

On 17 September 2019, together with the Department of Health and Social Care and the World Health Organization, we held the first-ever conference marking World Patient Safety Day. Our esteemed speakers included Dr Aidan Fowler, National Director of Patient Safety and Jeremy Hunt, former UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

• In 2020, our virtual conference focused on health worker safety alongside its impact on patient safety. Frontline staff, many of whom were from an ethnic minority background, shared their perspectives on working during COVID-19 and staff-led initiatives to support safety and wellbeing. We published a commentary paper for World Patient Safety Day highlighting the importance of keeping health workers safe so that they can keep patients safe.
• In 2021, our event focused on ‘Safe Maternal and Newborn Care’, with the aim of increasing awareness of maternal and newborn safety and promoting safe and respectful childbirth. You can watch the event recording here.
• In 2022, we explored issues in medication safety through a spotlight on recent NIHR NWL Patient Safety Research Collaboration research, highlighting the impact of the Medication Safety Challenge globally, and focusing on the need for patient and carer involvement in medication safety. See our summaries and watch recordings from 2022.
• In 2023, for the World Health Organization’s World Patient Safety Day 2023 theme of "Engaging patients for patient safety", the NIHR NWL PSRC, Institute of Global Health Innovation and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust hosted a virtual event to celebrate and elevate patient and family voices for patient safety. The event aimed to facilitate impactful and insightful conversations about how key stakeholders can work together to empower patients with becoming advocates for their own safety to improve outcomes.

Imperial College London marks the World Patient Safety Day by illuminating the Queen’s Tower on the university’s South Kensington campus in orange. We join many global sites in symbolising the importance of patient safety in efforts to achieve universal health coverage.

COVID-19 has had a significant effect on the safety of health care workers (HCWs) globally. These challenges can be seen globally, but are most pronounced in low resource settings. Urgent research is needed to bridge the evidence gap around how best to support HCWs with the physical, psychological, behavioural and social repercussions of working at the frontline of a pandemic. We have published a commentary paper highlighting the importance of frontline and local leaders in implementing initiatives to improve HCWs health and wellbeing.  

We’re also conducting multi-health system research to understand the facilitators and barriers healthcare organisations and leadership face in implementing interventions designed to support their staff. We’ve already carried out a study with organisational leadership, and are now looking to conduct further research in this area across medical specialities with frontline staff.

In 2019, the Patient Safety Translational Research Centre at IGHI was selected as the academic partner for the Global Patient Safety Collaborative (GPSC), an initiative established by the joint efforts of the World Health Organization and the UK Government. 

The GPSC is aligned around three strategic objectives: education and training, research and leadership. The GPSC works to develop global resources for patient safety, alongside currently supporting four focus countries: Kenya, India, Pakistan and Mongolia. The GPSC is currently working on a range of activities to scale up global action on patient safety. These include research partnerships, a leadership competency framework, global priorities for patient safety research and revision of the WHO Patient Safety Curriculum Guide. 

We are also holding a webinar and capacity building series. So far we have run sessions on several topics including global developments in patient safety, clinical aspects of patient safety during COVID-19 and reporting and learning systems.

Find out more about the WHO Global Patient Safety Collaborative.