Championing patient safety: going global
- Liam Donaldson, Sir
- Correspondence to: Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, Room 111, Richmond House, 79 Whitehall, London SW1A 2NS, UK; Liam.Donaldson{at}doh.gsi.gov.uk
A resolution on patient safety being considered by the World Health Assembly will move patient safety on to the world health stage.
The early days of any programme to improve the quality of health care are always the most challenging, but potentially the most exciting. Raising awareness of the issues, inspiring front line staff to rise to the challenges, influencing policy makers to make a commitment and invest resources, persuading a health service to accord it a priority, reassuring the doubters, picking out the leaders—these are the challenges. And so it has been with patient safety. The problem of medical error had been present since organised clinical practice began, yet no one recognised …
