The Fourth Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety took place in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from 2–3 March 2019. This year’s Summit focused on patient safety in low and middle-income countries and reducing adverse events.

 

Worldwide there is a 1 in 300 chance of being harmed while accessing healthcare, compared with a one in 1 million chance of harm when travelling by plane.

 

In high-income countries, 1 in 10 patients suffers while accessing care. In low and middle-income countries, this number rises to one in four.

 

Across the world, 7 million people a year suffer disabling surgical complications, from which more than 1 million dies.

 

Patient safety in health care has become a serious global concern in recent years. Although health systems differ from country to country, many threats to patient safety have similar causes and often can be addressed by similar solutions.

 

The Summit brought together international patient safety experts, political decision-makers and other stakeholders involved in the global movement for patient safety.

 

The summit concluded with the Saudi Minister of Health Dr Tawfiq Al-Rabiah announcing the Jeddah Declaration on Patient Safety.

 

To highlight the importance of previous recommendations and to work on maintaining the momentum of the global patient safety movement, especially within low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), The Jeddah Declaration for Patient Safety 2019 endorses the points established by the Tokyo Declaration on Patient Safety presented at the Third Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety, 14^th April 2018, Tokyo, Japan.

 

In view of this call for action, the parties to the agreement declared to:

 

1. Promote Patient Safety in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC)
2. Utilize Digital Health to support Patient Safety across the globe
3. Promote Patient Empowerment & Community Engagement for Patient Safety
4. Leverage the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) through the creation of the International Classification of Adverse Events (ICAE) for Patient Safety
5. Implement and sustain National Reporting & Learning Systems for Patient Safety
6. Invest in Workforce knowledge and safety as the drivers for Patient Safety
7. Learn from other industries
8. Promote Medication Safety in Community Pharmacies
9. Consider Medical Devices and Human interface as crucial factors for Patient Safety
10. Enforce Infection Prevention Control (IPC) and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) strategies for Patient Safety
11. To reduce the 2^nd Translational Gap by supporting implementation and sustainable scale-up of patient safety interventions of known efficacy/effectiveness at national and global level

 

The full Jeddah Declaration for Patient Safety 2019 can be found here - https://www.spsc.gov.sa/English/Summit/Pages/JeddahDeclaration.aspx

 

ISQua Board Member, Shin Ushiro, on behalf of ISQua, presented ISQua’s ‘Declaration on Universal Health Coverage and Patient Safety’ on the second day (3^rd March) of the Summit during the ‘Considerations by NGOs’ session. A copy of our declaration can be downloaded here.