World Patient Safety Day 2022: Medication Safety

Every year on World Patient Safety Day, patients, clinicians, and all healthcare providers come together to commit to increasing patient safety.

The simple aim is that no one should be caused harm by unsafe care.

The theme for 2022 is Medication Safety.

Medication without Harm

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), unsafe medication practices and errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in healthcare systems worldwide.

The WHO is working in many ways to combat this, and one is to empower patients to be curious, ask questions and play their part in fully understanding their medication.

This video explains the three simple steps that can make a big difference.

1. Know your medicine.
2. Check you are using it correctly.
3. Ask your clinician if you are unsure.

When to consider Medication Safety

To encourage and enable patients to be able to have those discussions with their healthcare professional confidently, WHO has defined different times you should consider your medication safety and the questions to ask:

1. When starting a medication
   • What is the name of this medication, and what is it for?
   • What are the risks and possible side effects?

2. When taking your prescribed medication
   • When should I take this medication, and how much should I take each time?
   • What should I do if I have side effects?

3. When adding a prescribed medication
   • Do I really need any other medication?
   • Can this medication interact with my other medications?

4. When reviewing your medication
   • How long should I take each medication?
   • Am I taking any medications I no longer need?

5. When stopping your medication
   • When should I stop each medication?
   • If I have to stop my medication due to an unwanted effect, where should I report this?

Medication queries at Brunton Park Health Centre

As part of North Gosforth Primary Care Network, we have an excellent Pharmacy team working with patients across all four practices in the area.

Clinical Pharmacists Ashling, Amina, Suzanne and Mark, and Pharmacy Technicians Chris and Niamah make up our Pharmacy team, who work with patients to get the best out of their medication.

Patients might come across one of the team when their medication review is due or if they have questions about their repeat prescriptions.

About World Patient Safety Day

Established in 2019, World Patient Safety Day is one of WHO’s global public health days. Global public health days offer great potential to raise awareness and understanding of health issues and mobilise support for action from the local community to the international stage.

World Patient Safety Day is firmly grounded in the fundamental principle of medicine – first, do no harm. Its objectives are to increase public awareness and engagement, enhance global understanding, and work toward global solidarity and action by Member States to promote patient safety.

Each year, a new theme is selected on a priority patient safety topic to highlight its importance and call for urgent action to address the issue.