World Patient Safety Day (WPSD) 17 September 2020

Dear colleagues,

Greetings. We are a month away from World Patient Safety Day (WPSD) 2020 which will be observed across the world on 17 September. The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled the serious difficulties health workers are facing worldwide while responding to this unprecedented global public health challenge. WHO will be launching a global campaign for World Patient Safety Day 2020 to emphasize the importance of health worker safety as a priority for patient safety. We urge all partners and countries to develop national and local campaigns based on this global campaign, to support and observe the Day around the world to make it successful, and to commit and taking urgent and sustainable action to recognize health worker safety as a prerequisite for patient safety.

This WPSD will not only be an advocacy campaign but will also be a true platform for positive change. To this effect, a draft Health Worker Safety Charter and a set of WPSD 2020 goals are planned to be launched on the Day to call for urgent action by all stakeholders. Our goal is that over the coming year, we will have WHO Member States, NGOs, professional societies and many others “supporting” the charter as a focus for their actions on World Patient Safety Day and subsequently.

We have a number of activities lined up for marking the Day and are very excited to share with you our plans. On 17 September 2020, the following events are planned at the WHO-HQ in Geneva:
- 9:30-10:30 CEST: WPSD 2020 Press Conference to launch the draft Health Worker Safety Charter and a set of World Patient Safety Day 2020 goals
- 10:30-11:30 CEST: Live Social Media Events on several platforms
- 14:00-16:30 CEST: WPSD 2020 Global Virtual Event ““One world: Global solidarity for health worker safety and patient safety”
- COVID-19 Press conference including a brief on WPSD 2020
- Evening: Lighting of Jet d’Eau in orange colour

We take great pride in our GPSN family and are certain that success would not be possible without for your commitment and true ownership towards this cause. We therefore would really appreciate your input on the attached Charter that will be launched on the Day. We invite you to informally obtain feedback from your networks as well.

How can you contribute?
• If you wish to be part of our Global Virtual Event and/or YouTube Channel, please share your initiatives or testimonies in a video as per the enclosed briefing note by 30 August.
• Disseminate the key message of the campaign on social media and other channels
• Help us spread the word by re-tweeting bit.ly/3gaaurv
• Share with us your plans for the day. bit.ly/3kUY7Dy

Finally, we are pleased to announce that a number of communication products are now available on WHO/WPSD 2020 website and additional products also in different languages will be uploaded regularly in the coming days from this week onwards.

With best wishes for a successful World Patient Safety Day 2020!

Thanks and best regards,

Dr Neelam DHINGRA
Unit Head, Patient Safety Flagship/
World Health Organization
Email: dhingran@who.int
Web:http://www.who.int/patientsafety