World Patient Safety Day 2023, Date, Theme and Importance

World Patient Safety Day 2023

World Patient Safety Day 2023 is observed every year on 17 September. This year’s theme for World Patient Safety Day is “Engaging patients for patient safety”. The purpose of the day is to honour the crucial role patients, families, and caregivers play in the safety of health care. Its goals are to raise public awareness and participation, improve knowledge on a worldwide scale, and encourage Member States to act in harmony to improve patient safety and reduce patient harm. Here in this post, we have given all the details on World Patient Safety Day 2023.

Important Days In September 2023 

World Patient Safety Day 2023: History

Patient safety is a very important part of healthcare as healthcare can sometimes be complicated. There is been a rise in patient harm in healthcare facilities, and it causes a lot of people to get sick or even die.

According to the currently available research, hospitalization causes 134 million adverse events each year in low- and middle-income countries, which ultimately result in 2.6 million fatalities. One in ten people receiving hospital care in high-income countries suffers injury. Even in high-income countries, approximately one in ten patients is harmed while receiving hospital care facilities.

So, considering all the events and research, in the 72nd World Health Assembly, a resolution was adopted WHA 72.6 on ‘Global action on patient safety’ and  Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030 as the main strategy for eliminating avoidable harm in health care. Under this, World Patient Safety Day was established in May 2019.

World Patient Safety Day 2023: Theme

Each year, World Patient Safety Day is commemorated with a distinct theme. The upcoming theme for World Patient Safety Day 2023 is “Engaging patients for patient safety” while the previous year’s theme was “Medication Without Harm”.

Objectives of World Patient Safety Day 2023

The main objectives of the World Patient Safety Day 2023 are:

• The need to actively involve patients, their families, and caregivers in all settings and at all levels of healthcare in order to ensure patient safety.
• Participate in efforts to involve patients and families in the policies and practices for safe healthcare by involving policymakers, healthcare leaders, health and care workers, patients’ organizations, civil society, and other stakeholders.
• Encourage patients and their families to take an active role in improving the safety of medical care as well as their personal health.
• Encourage all partners to take immediate steps to engage patients and their families in accordance with the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030.

Significance of World Patient Safety Day 2023

The global campaign for World Patient Safety Day in 2023 will propose a wide range of activities for all stakeholders on and around September 17th, including national campaigns, policy forums, advocacy and technical events, capacity-building initiatives, and, as in previous years, lighting up famous monuments, landmarks, and public spaces in the colour orange (the campaign’s signature mark).