Global progress and Never Events

We are not alone as a country in facing acute patient safety challenges. Patient safety is a global as well as a national concern. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently published the Global Patient Safety Report, presenting important insights into the current state of patient safety across the world (WHO, 2024).

This considers progress on the patient safety calls for action made in the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 (WHO, 2021). The 2021 action plan set the scene with key ambitions and challenges for countries to meet, under a framework for action. It listed seven strategic objectives, each with five supporting strategies.

The progress report from WHO offers important insights into strategies adopted, trends, issues, challenges, opportunities and so on. This will be a key resource for all stakeholders in patient safety – policy makers, health professionals, educators, patient advocates, researchers and so on. It is always useful to reflect on what other countries are doing in patient safety policy development and practice, to see what is working and what is not. That way, we can avoid reinventing the wheel and save valuable healthcare resources.