World Patient Safety Day 2025

Summary

This year’s World Patient Safety Day (WPSD 25) on 17 September is focused on the theme “Safe care for every newborn and every child”. This article explains the aims of the event and the areas it will cover.

You can now read Patient Safety Learning's World Patient Safety Day blog to mark this year's event here.

Content

Wednesday 17 September 2025 marks the sixth annual World Patient Safety Day. World Patient Safety Day aims to:

• increase public awareness and engagement
• enhance global understanding
• work towards global solidarity and action by World Health Organization (WHO) Member States to enhance patient safety and reduce patient harm.

The theme of this year’s event is “Safe care for every newborn and every child”.[1]

Ensuring safe care for patients is a fundamental priority, yet newborns and children remain especially vulnerable to patient safety risks. While the reported level of patient safety incidents relating to newborns and children receiving healthcare varies, studies suggest that adverse events occur across all care settings, with higher risks among critically ill children, particularly those in intensive care or requiring complex medical interventions. Some studies report rates as high as 91.6% in intensive care settings and up to 53.8% in general care settings.[2]

To bring attention this critical issue, “Safe care for every newborn and every child” has been selected as the theme for World Patient Safety Day 2025, emphasising the need for stronger measures to protect children from preventable harm. The Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 recognises paediatric and newborn safety across multiple strategic objectives, including designing safe clinical processes, strengthening health workforce competencies, engaging patients and families and establishing learning systems to prevent harm.

Objectives of World Patient Safety Day 2025

Under the slogan “Patient safety from the start!”, WHO is calling for urgent action to eliminate avoidable harm in paediatric and newborn care. Addressing this challenge requires comprehensive efforts across key patient safety areas, such as safe childbirth and postnatal care, medication safety, diagnostic safety, immunisation safety, infection prevention and early recognition of clinical deterioration. World Patient Safety Day 2025 aims to drive meaningful improvements and reaffirm every child's right to safe and quality care.

As part of this, it has set four objectives:

1. Raise global awareness of safety risks in paediatric and newborn care in all health care settings, emphasising the specific needs of children, families and caregivers.
2. Mobilise governments, health care organizations, professional bodies and civil society to implement sustainable strategies for safer care for newborns and children as part of broader patient safety and quality initiatives.
3. Empower parents, caregivers and children in patient safety by promoting education, awareness and active participation in care.
4. Advocate for Strengthening research on patient safety in paediatric and newborn care.

You can find campaign materials from the WHO for the event here.

Calls to action and key messages

Patients and caregivers - Be your child’s safety champion. Stay informed. Stay involved. Speak up.

• Track and share: keep notes on symptoms, medications and appointments. Share everything with your health care team.
• Keep informed: learn about common medical conditions in children and what to watch out for.  Understand hospital safety protocols, such as handwashing and visitor restrictions.
• Have your say: take part in the decisions being taken about your child’s care.
• Ask and confirm: always ask about treatments. Double-check names, allergies and medications before interventions.
• Trust your gut: if something feels off, speak up. You know your child best.

School-aged children (6+ years) - Be a patient safety star, speak up for your safety!

• Speak up: tell an adult if you feel sick, are hurting, or if something feels wrong during your care. Try your best to describe what you’re feeling, like pain or tiredness.
• Stay safe during care: share your name, birthday and allergies with your doctor or nurse. Ask what your medicine is for. If you get a cut or scrape, ask how to keep it clean while it heals.
• Be a germ buster: wash your hands often. Cover your cough or sneeze with your elbow or a tissue.  It’s okay to remind others to do that, too.
• You can help:  if something doesn’t look or feel right, tell an adult.

Health practitioners - Deliver care that’s safe and child-centred.

• Tailor care to the child: adjust for age, weight and development. Verify a child’s identity before any intervention and check for allergies.
• Prevent harm: watch for the main causes of harm such as medication errors, health care-associated infections and diagnostic errors.
• Act early: spot signs of deterioration. Respond promptly.
• Partner with parents and children: communicate clearly. Listen actively. Encourage questions and involve them in the decision-making.
• Coordinate and learn: share information clearly across teams. Report incidents to improve care and contribute towards improvement efforts.

Health care facility managers - Make safe care the standard for every child, everywhere.

• Streamline safety: apply WHO quality of care standards. Establish core safety systems such as patient identification, safe medication, infection prevention, and care escalation.
• Support the workforce: ensure staff are trained in safe paediatric care skills. Foster teamwork, open communication and standardized care.
• Make care child-friendly: provide  appropriate child-friendly spaces and equipment.
• Use data to improve care: establish a safety culture. Support incident reporting by staff and caregivers. Track safety indicators and act on insights.

Policy-makers and health care leaders - Invest in safe care for children. Save lives and resources.

• Embed paediatric safety within policy: integrate safety into national health policies and strategies.
• Invest in safer care: build workforce capacity and equip facilities with the tools, training and infrastructure needed to keep children safe.
• Lead with data and learning: strengthen data systems. Promote a culture of safety and learning.
• Engage communities: involve civil society, patient advocates, child protection groups and educators in building safer systems and promoting patient safety in schools.

Teachers, educators and school health staff - Empower children to participate in their health care.

• Empower children: teach them to speak up, ask questions and share symptoms or concerns.
• Create safe spaces: listen with empathy. Reduce fear around health care.
• Promote safety education: partner with health workers. Build children’s hygiene habits, health literacy and awareness of patient safety.
• Practice and celebrate: recognize and praise children when they make safe health decisions, such as regular handwashing and coughing into the elbow.

Civil society organizations and advocacy groups - Raise awareness. Mobilize communities. Demand safe care for every child.

• Raise awareness: promote health literacy. Share clear, accessible information on patient safety risks and the prevention of harm.
• Promote equity: advocate for safe care in all settings, especially those in low-resourced, marginalized or humanitarian settings, where risks are greatest.
• Amplify voices: represent patients in health dialogues. Co-create safer systems with health workers.

Share your views and experiences on the hub

Do you have experiences or views around the theme of this year’s World Patient Safety Day that you would like to share? You can share your thoughts with us by commenting below (sign up here for free first), submitting a blog, or by emailing us at [email protected].

References

1. WHO. Announcing World Patient Safety Day 2025 – Patient safety from the start!, 18 March 2025.
2. Dillner P, Eggenschwiler LC, Rutjes AWS, Berg L, Musy SN, Simon M et al. Incidence and characteristics of adverse events in paediatric inpatient care: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Qual Saf. 2023;32:133–49.