EVERY year on 17 September, World Patient Safety Day reminds us of a fundamental principle of health care: people seeking treatment should be protected from avoidable harm. The 2026 campaign focuses on “Safe care for non-communicable diseases” with the slogan “Safe care for life!” The theme is particularly relevant because non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, are long-term conditions that often require continuing care throughout life.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around one in 10 patients is harmed during health care globally, and around half of this harm is considered preventable. These figures underline an important reality: patient safety is not simply a matter of individual mistakes. It is closely connected with how health systems are designed, managed and delivered.
For people living with chronic diseases, health care may involve repeated consultations, diagnostic investigations, prescriptions, referrals and long-term treatment. Every additional interaction creates opportunities for communication failures, medication errors, diagnostic problems or other forms of avoidable harm. Safe care therefore requires attention at every stage of the patient journey.
Medication safety is especially important. WHO identifies medication-related harm as a major source of preventable patient harm. Patients may receive several medicines over long periods, making clear prescribing, accurate dispensing, appropriate monitoring and effective communication essential. Patients should also be encouraged to understand their medicines, disclose other treatments and inform health professionals about allergies or previous adverse reactions.
Diagnosis is another important component of patient safety. A missed, delayed or incorrect diagnosis can postpone appropriate treatment and potentially worsen outcomes. Strengthening communication between health professionals, maintaining accurate patient information and ensuring appropriate referral and follow-up can help reduce these risks.
Patient safety also requires meaningful involvement of patients and families. People should receive understandable information about their condition and treatment and should feel able to ask questions and raise concerns. WHO emphasises patient and family engagement as an important element of safer health care. A patient who understands the treatment plan can become an active partner rather than simply a recipient of care.
For health facilities, creating a culture of safety is equally important. WHO recommends systems that allow patient-safety incidents to be reported and used for learning and improvement. This requires moving away from a culture that automatically blames individuals and instead examining the processes and systems that contributed to an incident. Accountability remains important, but learning from mistakes is essential for preventing their recurrence.
Pakistan, like other countries, can strengthen patient safety by making it an integral part of health-care planning and service delivery. Leadership commitment, competent health workers, effective teamwork, good communication, safe clinical processes, reliable health information and patient engagement all contribute to safer care.
World Patient Safety Day should therefore be more than an annual awareness event. It should encourage hospitals, primary-care facilities, health professionals, policymakers, patients and families to consider what can be done every day to reduce avoidable harm. Safe care is not an additional feature of a good health system; it is one of its defining responsibilities. On 17 September, the message should be simple and universal: every patient deserves care that is safe, respectful and of good quality. “Safe care for life” should become not merely a campaign slogan, but a continuing commitment across Pakistan’s health-care system.
—The writer is public health consultant, based in Islamabad.
