Patients for patient safety

Meaningful engagement of patients, families and communities can improve health care quality and patient safety.

Patients and their families are the only constants in the increasingly complex health care systems. A patient may receive care from different facilities and multiple care providers from different disciplines. Every point in the care process contains some inherent risks. Adverse events or harm may result from problems in practice, or with products, procedures, or systems, which are not usually the fault of the health care provider. They are a repository of critical information, which they can share when engaged and empowered. Engaging patients and families who have experienced harm can provide insights and learning concerning system failures. Patients’ and health care users’ experiences and perspectives are needed in efforts to achieve integrated and people-centred health systems and services. It is therefore essential to ensure that their voice is heard in health care.

 WHO Patients for Patients Safety (PFPS) is a programme of WHO Flagship Initiative “A Decade of Patient Safety 2021-2030” that engages and empowers patients and families and facilitates their partnership with health professionals and policy-makers to make health care services safer worldwide. Patient is the only one person gone through his/her entire care process: Her/his and family voice should be heard fully.

PFPS was set up in 2005 with its first workshop held in November 2005, in London, United Kingdom. Its vision, expressed in the London Declaration, is to engage, empower, encourage and facilitate patients and families to build and/or participate in global networks advocating for, and partnering with health professionals and policy makers to make health care services safer, more integrated, and people-centred for all.

Our goals

The goals of PFPS are to:

• Facilitate efforts to engage and empower patients, families and communities to play an active role in their own care;
• Bring the voices of patients and people to the forefront of health care;
• Create an enabling environment for partnerships between patients, families, communities and health professionals.

Since the PFPS programme’s inception, the programme has broadened and its mission has widened to include engagement for people-centredness and universal access and quality care. Engaging and empowering people is one of the five strategies of the WHO global strategy on people-centred and integrated health services (PCIHS) and a key element of quality UHC. Engagement is not only crucial for patients in institutional care, but also for members of the communities who wish to participate in health care initiatives and programmes from promotion to palliation. 

Our approach

Working with patients and health professionals

• Raise awareness through collaboration and partnership building: Bring the patient voice to events, including conferences and WHO meetings at both national and global levels;
• Identify gaps in evidence and priorities for research; facilitate priority research and create tools to bring about meaningful engagement for health;
• Empower and engage patients, people, and health professionals through workshops and events:
• PFPS workshops engage and empower patients and people.
• Capacity building workshops tailored for health professionals, patients, and communities.
• Bring stakeholders together through different initiatives to form partnerships, enabling understanding and information sharing, which in turn engages and empowers people.

Tools

This programme aims to incorporate the patient, family, and community voice into all levels of health care through engagement and empowerment.

The goal is to advocate and facilitate:

• Patients taking ownership of their care;
• Bringing the voices of patients and people to the forefront of health care;
• Patient, family, and community partnerships with health professionals (health-care providers, policy-makers, researchers).