This report focuses on Strategic Objective 7: Develop and sustain multisectoral and multinational synergy, partnership and solidarity to improve patient safety and quality of care. It emphasizes that enhancing patient safety and care quality is an evolving endeavor that requires a holistic approach focused on ongoing improvement.
The report is structured around five key strategies that contribute to this objective:
- Strategy 7.1: Stakeholders engagement
- Strategy 7.2: Common understanding and shared commitment
- Strategy 7.3: Patient safety networks and collaboration
- Strategy 7.4: Cross geographical and multisectoral initiatives for patient safety
- Strategy 7.5: Alignment with technical programmes and initiatives
Key Insights and Findings:
Overall Performance and Challenges: A Member State survey, evaluating responses on 25 criteria linked to synergy, partnership, and collaboration under Strategic Objective 7, revealed a global performance score of 41 out of 100. While 18% of the criteria were fully met and 42% partially met, about one-third of the criteria saw no action taken by countries. The report highlights variability in implementation levels across the five strategies, with “Alignment with technical programmes and initiatives” showing a relatively higher score, while “Patient safety networks and collaboration” and “Common understanding and shared commitment” show lower implementation.
Regional and Income Group Variations:
- There’s a significant variation in performance across WHO regions, with relatively strong engagement and effective strategy execution in the European Region and Western Pacific Region.
- Countries in the Region of the Americas demonstrate commendable alignment with technical programmes.
- However, there is noticeable scope for improvement in many strategies in countries of the African Region and the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
- High-income countries (HICs) consistently achieve higher median scores for synergy, partnership, and solidarity, indicating more established stakeholder engagement and alignment. Despite this, the data suggests that effective collaboration is possible across the economic spectrum, as evidenced by higher-scoring outliers in lower-income groups.
Strategic Area Details:
Strategy 7.1: Stakeholders Engagement
- Importance: Involving stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise is crucial for achieving effective outcomes and maintaining long-term progress. This broad engagement promotes understanding of different perspectives on healthcare risks and leverages collective expertise and resources.
- Current Status: Only 35% of countries reported identifying all key stakeholders at national and subnational levels, and only 23% have conducted a stakeholder analysis. A critical aspect of meaningful participation is defining clear roles and responsibilities, which only about one fifth of countries have confirmed. Only 17% have established a functional coordination mechanism.
- Private Sector Involvement: Despite growing recognition, there’s significant room for improvement; while 65% of countries acknowledge the private sector as key, only 12% actively engage them in national initiatives.
- Key Engaged Stakeholders:
- Professional associations are widely involved in most countries, with a high global engagement rate of 71%, reaching 100% in the Western Pacific Region.
- Academic and research institutions also show robust global involvement at 62%, highlighting their role in education, training, and research.
- Health care providers demonstrate moderate global engagement at 55%.
- Pharmaceutical and medical device companies have one of the lowest engagement rates at 35% globally, indicating an area for potential growth.
- Country Examples: Countries like Australia, Denmark, Germany, Guyana, Malaysia, Malawi, Nigeria, Singapore, Thailand, Türkiye, Namibia, Sudan, and Liberia have developed various approaches to stakeholder identification, analysis, and engagement.
Strategy 7.2: Common Understanding and Shared Commitment
- Rationale: A common understanding helps streamline efforts, maximizes impact, facilitates open communication, builds trust, and encourages active roles from stakeholders.
- Alignment with Global Plan: Only about 15% of Member States have incorporated the strategic elements of the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 into their national policies. Even fewer (10%) have a mechanism for periodic review of national implementation.
- Global Collaboration: Stakeholders collaborate through various mechanisms, including professional groups (e.g., ICN, WMA, FIP), specific patient groups (e.g., IAPO, PFPS), inter-disciplinary expert groups (e.g., IEA, ISQua), and international bodies like OECD. WHO engages with stakeholders via official relations with non-state actors (NSAs) and the establishment of Collaborating Centres.
Strategy 7.3: Patient Safety Networks and Collaboration
- Significance: Networks and collaboration are crucial for problem-solving, knowledge sharing, and breaking down silos between sectors.
- Consultations: Only 17% of respondents reported organizing consultations on the implementation of the Global Patient Safety Action Plan, though 42% have planned them.
- National Networks: 21% of countries have an established and operational national patient safety network, with the Western Pacific Region showing the highest implementation at 58%.
- Global Patient Safety Network (GPSN): This innovative online platform unites healthcare stakeholders globally to share ideas, tools, and best practices for enhancing patient safety, with over 3000 professionals from around 160 countries as members.
- Collaborative Alliances: These alliances, often formal or informal agreements, pool expertise and resources to address specific areas like medication safety or surgical safety, fostering innovation and best practice sharing.
- Global Initiatives: Examples include the Global Patient Safety Collaborative (GPSC), the Africa Patient Safety Initiative, African Partnerships for Patient Safety (APPS), and the G20/Global Patient Safety Leaders Group (GPSLG), all focused on scaling up global action, sharing best practices, and strengthening health systems.
Strategy 7.4: Cross Geographical and Multisectoral Initiatives for Patient Safety
- Benefits: These initiatives broaden perspectives, enable innovation transfer, promote standardized practices, facilitate resource sharing, boost research, influence policy, aid crisis response, and enhance equity in care.
- Global Ministerial Summits: These annual summits are a critical mechanism for policy-makers and experts to converge on policy decisions and prioritize patient safety globally. 73% of countries reported high-level participation (health ministers or senior executives) in recent summits. The summits have been instrumental in galvanizing international commitment, leading to the establishment of World Patient Safety Day and the Global Patient Safety Action Plan.
- Dissemination of Ideas: While 28% of countries share best practices and innovations through regional or global platforms, 30% have compiled them but not yet shared them.
Strategy 7.5: Alignment with Technical Programmes and Initiatives
- Integration: Patient safety intersects with all aspects of healthcare, making alignment with other technical programmes integral to delivering safe, efficient, and high-quality care.
- WHO Initiatives: WHO demonstrates this synergy through its Global Patient Safety Challenges, focusing on themes like “Clean care is safer care” (2005), “Safe surgery saves lives” (2008), and “Medication Without Harm” (2017). The annual World Patient Safety Day on September 17th also highlights critical aspects requiring global attention.
Reference: Global patient safety report 2024. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2024.
