17 September 2026 is World Patient Safety Day. This global campaign is led by the World Health Organization (WHO). It aims to raise awareness of patient safety and encourage action to make healthcare safer for everyone. This year’s theme, “Safe care for noncommunicable diseases”, with the slogan “Safe care for life!”.
Noncommunicable diseases, including long-term health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory conditions, affect millions of people. These conditions often require ongoing care throughout an individual’s lifetime. The WHO highlights that people living with these conditions are particularly vulnerable to patient safety risks due to regular contact with healthcare services and the complexity of their care needs. Around the world, approximately one in 10 patients experiences harm during healthcare, and around half of those incidents could be prevented.
Patient safety is at the heart of everything we do. World Patient Safety Day is a chance to reflect on progress, recognise the work of NHS Essex and partners, and continue to deliver high-quality, safe care for the people of Essex.
Putting patient safety first
Providing safe care is everyone’s responsibility across the health and care system. From primary care and community services to hospitals, mental health services and hospices, every contact with patients is an opportunity to improve safety, reduce harm and enhance care experiences.
These include:
- learning from patient safety incidents and sharing improvements across organisations
- supporting staff to identify and address risks early
- promoting a culture of openness, learning and continuous improvement
- using data and insight to identify opportunities to make care safer
- working closely with patients, families and carers to ensure their voices influence service improvements
- improving medicines safety, infection prevention, falls prevention and the management of long-term conditions.
Supporting people living with long-term conditions
This year’s World Patient Safety Day campaign theme is particularly important to our population. Many people across Essex live with one or more long-term conditions and rely on healthcare services throughout their lives.
The WHO emphasises that patient safety matters at every point of a person’s care, from preventing illness and making a diagnosis to treatment and ongoing support at home or in the community.
By learning together, working collaboratively across health, social care and voluntary sector partners, and putting patients at the centre of everything, we can help create a healthcare system where safe, high-quality care is available to everyone, throughout their lives.