World Patient Safety Day 2023

“Engaging Patients for Patient Safety” has been selected as the theme for World Patient Safety Day 2023. Evidence shows that when patients are treated as partners in their care, significant gains are made in safety, patient satisfaction, and health outcomes. Resolution WHA72.6 urges Members States “to put into place systems to support the active engagement, participation, and empowerment of patients, families, and communities in the delivery of safer health care”.

Each year, a new theme is selected to highlight a priority patient safety area for action. The objectives of World Patient Safety Day 2023 are:

1. Raise global awareness of the need for active engagement of patients and their families and caregivers in all settings and at all levels of health care to improve patient safety.

2. Empower patients and families to be actively involved in their own health care and in the improvement of safety of health care.

3. Advocate urgent action be taken by all partners on patient and family engagement, aligned with the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030.

To shift the paradigm of patient-centeredness from care designed “for patients” to care designed “with patients”, patient and family engagement has been included as one of the seven strategic objectives of the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 and will now be the focus of the global campaign for this year’s World Patient Safety Day. Through the slogan “Elevate the voice of patients!” WHO calls on all stakeholders to take necessary action to ensure that patients are involved in policy formulation, are represented in governance structures, are engaged in co-designing safety strategies, and are active partners in their own care. There is a need to provide platforms at global, national, and local levels to enable patients and their families to make their voices heard and share their experiences of safe and unsafe care; and to ensure that they are engaged and empowered, and their insights are used as a vital source of learning and improvement.

WPA organized world largest campaigns WPSD in the world by organizing over 1200 events in 2021 and 2022

The WPSD was established in 2019 by the Seventy-second World Health Assembly through the adoption of resolution WHA72.6: “Global action on patient safety”. Global public health days have great potential to raise awareness and understanding of key health issues and to mobilize support for action, from the local community to the international stage. World Patient Safety Day is firmly grounded in the fundamental principle of medicine— “first do no harm.” Its objectives are to increase public awareness and engagement, enhance global understanding, and work towards global solidarity and action by member states to promote patient safety.