All around the world, people are joining together (virtually) to help celebrate the 2nd World Patient Safety Day. The theme for the day ‘Health Worker Safety: A Priority for Patient Safety’ has never been more relevant. We all work in health care, and all of us know or are front-line staff. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected us all and brought to the forefront the huge challenges and risks health workers face, not just during a pandemic, but every day.

 

The statement published today by ISQua and IHF confirms our commitment to the WHO Flagship Initiative: A Decade of Patient Safety 2020-2030, and we will support key elements of the work to be undertaken during this decade so that health and healthcare can be safe in the future.

 

The statement is based on three key messages, acknowledging the fact that the safety culture has been continuously challenged during the past months.

• People (patient & health worker) safety is inherent in healthcare and is based on co-production.
• Health worker physical and mental health are paramount.
• The Covid-19 crisis is an opportunity to learn.

 

The findings from a recent report published by ISQua and IHF – Health Services Patient Safety: A Priority with Multiple Dimensions’ helped build these key messages.

 

Two important parts of health worker safety, psychological safety and human factors, were covered today in webinars from experts in their fields. We were honoured that they were willing to share their knowledge and experience with us, to help move health workers a step closer to safety.

 

Our webinars were not the only way for people to find information, our President-elect, Prof Jeffrey Braithwaite has an excellent article published in InSight+ and a video recording asking us to use our influence to achieve improvements; ISQua’s International Journal for Quality in Health Care have a library of articles on Health Worker Safety, and the most recently published articles on this have been made open access for a limited time; and our partners and members around the world are host webinars, events and networking sessions all in support of today.

 

I will end this with a request - Individually and collectively we all have a responsibility to make a difference and effectively contribute to the World Patient Safety Day theme of Safe Health Workers are essential for Safe Patients!  What is your contribution?

 

All ISQua activities can be found here - https://isqua.org/events/world-patient-safety-day-2020.html