Patient safety

On 15 November, the Commission published a report on patient safety, focussing on the state of implementation of a number of actions to increase patient safety. These actions were agreed by the member states in 2009.

The report concludes that Member States have implemented various measures such as embedding patient safety in public health polices and identifying competent authorities on patient's safety; however more effort is needed towards actions targeting patients, e.g. patient empowerment, and health professionals, e.g. more education and training. The report also shows that the current economic crisis is slowing down the implementation because of changing public health priorities. However, efforts need to be made to ensure that the crisis does not undermine patient safety: research shows that between 13 and 16 % of hospital costs are due to healthcare related injuries and ill health. In the current financial context it is crucial to reduce the costs of unsafe care and to develop cost-effective patient safety programmes. 

For the report: 

http://ec.europa.eu/health/patient_safety/policy/index_en.htm and 

http://ec.europa.eu/health/patient_safety/docs/council_2009_report_en.pdf