Getting lost in the maze of NHS patient safety publications and initiatives

World Patient Safety Day on 17 September 2019 has come and gone. The NHS joined in the celebrations and the campaign to make health care safer across the globe. We also heard stark messages from the World Health Organization (WHO) including one that, globally, at least 5 patients die every minute because of unsafe health care. World Patient Safety Day was there to engage everybody in the debate. Greater patient involvement is the key to safer care (WHO, 2019). It was evident from the day and from the responses around the world that there are major global patient safety problems. It may be even fair to say that there is a global epidemic of unsafe health care.

What is worrying is that when we look at patient safety policy developments and initiatives such as World Patient Safety Day the general public does not seem to know much about the problem. This is the impression I gained from analysing national and global media in patient safety and health quality.