Towards Zero Patient Harm in Health Care: Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030

Over the next 10 years, the World Health Organization (WHO), its global partners and its Member States will be working tirelessly to help all people of the world to have access to health services. As per the mandate of World Health Assembly resolution WHA72.6 (May 2019): “Towards Zero Patient Harm in Health Care: Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030” (First Draft, August 2020) is now open for public consultation.

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is an inspiring goal that aims, over the next five years, to see one billion more people having access to the safe and quality health services they need without facing financial hardship. That is the target that must be achieved if the world is to get on track and stay on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The sustainable development agenda will not be met without ensuring that health services are safe. It will not be worth achieving if health care itself poses a threat to people’s health. The benefit of increased coverage would not be fully realized, and people could lose trust in health services. This, in turn, would reduce their confidence to seek health care even when they most needed it.

That is why the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2019 adopted a resolution ‘Global action on patient safety’ (WHA72.6) to give priority to patient safety as an essential foundational step in building, designing, operating and evaluating the performance of all health care systems. The adoption of this resolution was a remarkable milestone in global efforts to take concerted action on patient safety and reduce the burden of patient harm due to unsafe health care.

The resolution asked the Director General of WHO to formulate a Global Patient Safety Action Plan in consultation with Member States and a wide range of partners and other organizations. To respond to WHA resolution (WHA72.6) and moving ahead from global commitments to tangible action, WHO launched a Flagship Initiative “A Decade of Patient Safety 2020 to 2030” in February 2020. This important step defines WHO’s contribution to the global patient safety movement.

It will be the driver, through its year-by-year milestones, for successfully implementing the Global Patient Safety Action Plan.

The Global Patient Safety Action Plan, will provide a strategic direction for concrete actions to be taken by countries, partner organizations, care facilities and WHO to implement WHA resolution (WHA72.6). As a result, it will strengthen health systems globally to diagnose, treat, cure, and care whilst striving to: “First do no harm,” the celebrated maxim of the Greek physician, Hippocrates (460-375 BC).

WHO invite organizations and individuals to review and provide comments/suggestions on the draft Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030 by 28th September 18:00 CEST

The draft action plan and the link for comments on the plan can be found here – https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/public-consultation-for-review-of-draft-global-patient-safety-action-plan-2021-2030/

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Nourhan Kawtharani

Nourhan, a quality and safety coordinator with eight years of experience in ambulatory healthcare in Lebanon, aims to deepen her understanding of the systemic and holistic approach to healthcare through this fellowship.

She aims to identify gaps and develop tailored interventions that address specific contexts rather than applying general solutions. Engaging with diverse professionals and perspectives during this educational journey will expand the application of these concepts across different cultural settings.

Nourhan emphasizes the importance of promoting a culture of continuous learning and improvement within healthcare institutions, considering it a vital leadership responsibility to integrate quality and safety initiatives into the organizational culture.

Nourhan's commitment to patient safety and quality management includes sourcing practical resources and transforming insights into actionable knowledge to drive continued progress in healthcare practices and outcomes.

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Elom Otchi

Elom is passionate about improving quality of care and patient safety outcomes.

In view of this, he has had the opportunity to work in various capacities with various organisations including AfIHQSA, WHO, UNICEF and others undertaking research, supporting the development of national quality policies and strategies, facilitating the establishment of quality governance systems across all the levels of the health sector and building capacity of national and sub-national quality leads/teams to institutionalize the practice of quality and patient safety across the continent.

He has also worked extensively across all levels of care in the health sector of Ghana, including leading the Quality & Patient Safety program in its largest teaching hospital.

I would like to use this Fellowship as a learning platform and an opportunity to acquire the requisite knowledge, skills and competencies to complement ongoing efforts by like-minded individuals and organizations to continuously advance improve the quality and patient safety in Ghana and the continent.

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Stephen Taiye Balogun

Stephen is a Senior Programme Officer at the Institute of Human Virology in Nigeria as well as Country Representative for Health Information for All (HIFA).

Stephen plans to use this opportunity to maximise his impact by championing the cause of patient safety and quality in Nigeria and across Africa.

Stephen says "Quality and safety is a major wheel through which universal healthcare coverage can be achieved. The goal is to be a bridge in the gap between the International Quality Improvement and Patient Safety community and my country to ensure rapid spread, adoption, implementation and practice."

We are looking forward to working with both Stephen and our 2020 winner Rhoda Kalondu over the next year.

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Dr Rhoda Kalondu

Rhoda is the Head of the Patient Safety Unit at Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi and wants to use this Fellowship to learn how to establish a culture of safety and develop systems for assessment and analysis at her institution, and more widely. As well as this, Rhoda intends to develop and execute an intervention to improve patient safety in Kenyatta National Hospital.

It is one thing to institute measures and processes for improvement, but quite another to change the culture of an environment. Rhoda's ambition to lead others in this change inspired the panel.

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Dr Subhrojyoti Bhowmick

I am an MBBS graduate from Calcutta University with a Gold Medal in Gynecology & Obstetrics.

I have completed M.D in Pharmacology from IPGME& R, Kolkata and have over 12 years of experience in the field of Clinical Research, Pharmacovigilance and Medication management in Hospitals.

I have completed certification in Clinical Research Administration & Project Management from Stanford University, USA and in Patient Safety from Johns Hopkins University, USA.

I am an Assessor for National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Health care providers (NABH), India assessing hospitals for medication safety and clinical quality standards and NABH Assessor for Ethics Committee Accreditation program in India as well.

I serve as the Chairperson, Institutional Ethics Committee of Health Point Hospital, Kolkata and am associated with 2 other Hospital ethics committees as a member.

I finished my Fellowship in Healthcare Quality from the International Society of Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) from Ireland in 2017.

I have published several research articles and have also authored a chapter on “Regulations governing Clinical Trial” in the book “Fundamentals of Clinical Trial & Research”.

I am a peer reviewer for prestigious international journals like the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, CNS Drugs and Drug Safety case reports.

I am the recipient of the UK Seth Oration Award for Best Clinical Pharmacology paper by the Indian Pharmacological Society in 2009 and the “Most promising Healthcare professional in Patient Safety in India” award by the Asian African Chamber of Commerce and Industry in October 2018.

Recently in April 2019, I received the Young Quality Achiever award by Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organizations (CAHO), India for 2019 for my work in the field of medication safety and clinical research.

I have a keen interest in teaching and am visiting adjunct faculty of Pharmacology at KMC, Mangalore, India and for Healthcare technology at MAKAUT, Kolkata, India.

I was associated with Stanford University School of Medicine, in the USA as a Senior Clinical Research Associate from 2015 to 2017 and have certification in Biostatistics, Evidence-based Medicine and Medical Writing from Stanford University.

Currently, I am working as the Clinical Director of Academics, Medical Quality and Clinical Research at Peerless Hospital and B K Roy Research Centre, Kolkata.

I am very happy and thrilled to receive the prestigious ISQua Lucian Leape Patient safety Fellowship Award for 2019 and I look forward to honing my skills further in the field of healthcare quality and patient safety through my experiences during this fellowship.

I sincerely believe that successful completion of this fellowship will help me evolve as a more confident Patient safety leader in India who in turn can provide significant inputs on policy changes through NABH for the Indian healthcare system.

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