Concerned about the high rate of deaths annually in low- and middle-income countries alone due to the unsafe health care system, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared 17 September as the first World Patient Safety Day.

“No one should be harmed while receiving health care. Yet globally, at least 5 patients die every minute because of unsafe care,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “We need a patient safety culture that promotes partnership with patients, encourages reporting and learning from errors, and creates a blame-free environment where health workers are empowered and trained to reduce errors."

In response to the global community’s concern for patient safety WHO launched the patient safety program in 2004, thus stressing the right of every patient to safe care. While we celebrated the first World Patient Safety Day this year, the healthcare industry needs to revisit its cardinal guiding principle of “Primum Non-Nocere” meaning “First Do No Harm”.

WHO is calling for urgent action by countries to reduce patient harm in healthcare. Quality of care and patient safety are essential for delivering effective health services and achieving universal health coverage. Let us see how important this initiative could be for India.

India's disease burden is borne mainly by the poor and it is higher than in many emerging economies. India compares unfavourably with the US and China in the number of hospital beds and nurses. According to government health and family welfare statistics, the country is 81 per cent short of specialists at rural community health centres (CHCs) and the private sector accounts for 63 per cent of hospital beds. India meets the global average in the number of physicians, but 74 per cent of its doctors cater to a third of the urban population, or no more than 442 million people, according to a KPMG report.

Patient safety involves a complex web of measures, each having the potential for preventing immediate or long-term harm to the patient, care providers and to the environment. Most of the causes of patient harm arise from system failure rather than from an individual’s failure. A comprehensive set of standards laid by government and National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) can provide the framework for establishing a safe patient care system.

The government of India has been initiating healthcare schemes which will ultimately lead to improved patient safety. Government of India has now formulated the National Patient Safety Implementation Framework (2018-2025) to stitch the existing fragmented healthcare schemes and programs into a single national policy on patient safety.

Patient safety is still an unmet challenge in India. There is a dire need to create Patient Safety Friendly Hospitals. Unless hospitals are viewed from the patient safety perspective patient safety will remain an elusive goal. The key to safer care is greater patient involvement. Engaging patients can reduce the burden of harm by up to 15% and can save billions of dollars. The decision of declaring 17 September as the first Patient Safety Day was taken by the 72nd World Health Assembly in May 2019. Cities around the globe will light up monuments in orange colour to show their commitment to the safety of patients.