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/