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Global public health programs have two central ethical responsibilities: providing health services for the benefit of populations and minimizing the risk of unintended harm to people. That is, to provide health benefits safely.
In May 2019, the 72nd World Health Assembly approved the establishment of World Patient Safety Day, which will be commemorated annually on September 17. World Patient Safety Day aims to enhance awareness of the importance of patient safety, embrace the participation of individuals and communities in the provision of high-quality healthcare, decrease the occurrence and high cost of medical errors and reaffirm the fundamental medical principle of “First, do no harm.”
Resolution WHA72.6 on global action on patient safetyone requested WHO, among other actions, develop normative guidance and tools to promote patient safety. The resolution also urged member states to provide training, promote safety research, share and disseminate best practices, and work collaboratively with other sectors to incorporate safety into all health policies and strategies.
Annually for the past 5 years, global neglected tropical disease (NTD) programs have reached more than 1 billion people for at least one disease through large-scale treatment programs. Additionally, millions more have been treated individually for neural tube defects, including snakebite envenomation, human African trypanosomiasis, visceral leishmaniasis, chronic lymphedema associated with lymphatic filariasis, trachomatous trichiasis, and filarial hydrocele. Programs do their best to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms of these interventions.
By doing so, ETD programs contribute substantially to overall patient safety and improve the quality of health services.
Patient safety is paramount in treating large numbers of people. It can be maximized by providing guidance and training to healthcare providers; adhere to WHO recommendations on the quality of drugs and where and how to intervene; monitoring the effectiveness of drugs; and provide pharmacovigilance at the point of care.
In addition to these measures, which have long been considered critical components of the program, WHO’s Neglected Tropical Diseases Control Department, national programs and their partners have quickly mobilized to respond to WHA72.6 emphasizing the new NTD roadmap for 2021-2030 the importance of security in key areas, including:
- prequalification, to guarantee the availability of safe and quality-assured medicines and diagnoses;
- strengthen our collaborations with national pharmacovigilance agencies to improve monitoring, evaluation and response to adverse events; and
- reinforce measures to improve patient care in the management of individual diseases, through initiatives such as simulation devices to train and test surgeons.
The Department is also developing and consolidating a safety guide for ETD programs to include training modules and job aids for workers at different levels of the health system.
Recent regional meetings of ETD program managers and program review groups in the WHO Western Pacific and South-East Asia regions have further highlighted patient safety issues and provided opportunities for ETD program managers share security challenges and best practices.
Ministries of health and program partners are also taking important steps. For example, a few months after the adoption of WHA72.6, the ETD NGO Network launched its ETD Security Pledge at its annual meeting in Liverpool, UK; and the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the International Trachoma Initiative and other partners, conducted a large observational assessment of the safety of mass drug administration, which is expected to further refine the safety guidelines. .
ETD’s global programs continue to provide massive health benefits to affected populations. Safety has always been an integral part of ETD’s programs. The elevated global profile of the importance of patient safety brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic provides a clear opportunity for ETD programs to demonstrate that they remain at the forefront of promoting safety.
I am grateful to our many partners for their collaboration and support, and I commend their efforts to preserve and strengthen security as we prepare for the next decade.
Today, on World Patient Safety Day, I call on the global ETD community to continue to prioritize safety and instill this culture as we accelerate our efforts to control, eliminate and eradicate NTDs. Between now and 2030 we should aim to:
- eliminate NTDs without operational errors and serious adverse events, which are already rarely seen during WHO-recommended interventions;
- guarantee that population-based data of guaranteed and controlled quality on the prevalence of NTDs are used to guide the implementation of mass drug administration, moving towards precision public health;
- continue to ensure that all medicines are safe and of guaranteed quality;
- continue to develop the capacity for the safe administration of drugs against neural tube diseases; and
- Continue to ensure the provision of high-quality patient-centered care for people living with NTDs.
The hallmark of this first World Patient Safety Day is the lighting of buildings and public places with the color orange. While individually or institutionally we may not all be able to participate in this symbolic act, we should at least wear an orange outfit to commemorate this day. Most importantly, we must continue to put the safety of our patients at the center of every action in our collective efforts to combat NTDs.
onehttps://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA72/A72_R6-en.pdf
