I am delighted to share with you that the WHO Executive Board (EB) 144th session deliberated on the agenda item ‘Global action on patient safety’ on 31 January 2019; and adopted the EB Resolution ‘Global action on patient safety’ (including the establishment of an annual World Patient Safety Day on 17 September) on 1 February 2019; and recommended it for adoption at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2019. This marks the achievement of a major milestone in the global patient safety movement.

The UK and German governments initiated the series of Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety. They successfully hosted the first two Summits respectively in London (2016) and Bonn (2017) in order to inform world leaders about the importance of addressing patient safety and galvanize action in this area. The third Summit was hosted by the Japanese Government in Tokyo (2018), which also led to announcement of “Tokyo Declaration on Patient Safety” (http://www.congre.co.jp/psgms2018/pdf/document/10-1_Document.pdf) as the outcome of 20 years of history on tackling patient safety and three consecutive Global Ministerial Summits on Patient Safety.

The WHA side event ‘Global action on patient safety for achieving effective Universal Health Coverage’ in May 2018 (https://www.who.int/patientsafety/SummaryReport_WHA71_PSU-side-event.pdf?ua=1), and a proposal by the Governments of thirty-four Member States in September 2018 (http://apps.who.int/gb/gov/assets/NFR_5-10-18_en.pdf), and several major international patient safety initiatives have significantly taken the movement forward. The fourth Summit is being organized by Saudi Arabia (March, 2019).

Please find below links to the related EB documents and video recordings for your reference.

1. Global action on patient safety: Report by the Director-General http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB144/B144_29-en.pdf
https://www.who.int/news-room/events/executive-board-144th-session
Video recording - 31.01.19 – Video 18:00-20:30 (Patient Safety precisely at 1:07:25 – 2:06:30)

2. Draft resolution Global Action on Patient Safety http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB144/B144_CONF8Rev1-en.pdf
https://www.who.int/news-room/events/executive-board-144th-session
Video recording - 01.02.19 – Video 11:30-12:30 (Patient Safety precisely at 30:40- 34:20)

3. Statements submitted by Member States and other participants of the 144rd session of the Executive Board http://apps.who.int/gb/statements/eb144/ under Item 6.6

4. Statement of Non-State Actors on ‘Global action on Patient Safety’ https://extranet.who.int/nonstateactorsstatements/meetingoutline/7 Under 6.6.1



This information was provided by Dr Neelam Dhingra-Kumar, Coordinator, Patient Safety and Risk Management, Service Delivery and Safety, World Health Organization to the WHO Global Patient Safety Network Community.