Global patient safety initiatives and the NHS

The World Health Organization (WHO) maintains a pivotal role in improving and promoting world health and has done so since its establishment in 1948. Like most organisations it has had its share of successes and failures. It remains, however, a champion of global health improvement and patient safety and is rightly highly valued.

The WHO has been heavily criticised by US President Donald Trump on its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic (Bennett, 2020). Gostin and Kavanagh (2020) accept that there are valid criticisms of the WHO, but claim that many made recently are simply wrong.

The WHO's work in global patient safety has had a direct influence on NHS efforts to develop an ingrained patient safety culture. Some useful materials and initiatives have been developed. In developing home-grown NHS patient safety initiatives, it is always useful for policy makers and developers to look outside the NHS and to consider comparative perspectives. It is important not to reinvent the patient safety wheel.