World Patient Safety Day 2020

This year´s World Patient Safety Day is dedicated to the enormous efforts and commitments that healthcare have shown throughout the global pandemic.

As the 2020 Corona pandemic revealed the fundamental societal importance of functioning healthcare systems and competent, dedicated and committed workforce, this year´s Patient Safety Day pays particular tribute to the men and women fighting the virus at the forefront.

COVID-19 brought our health systems and the workforce to its limits. The doctors, nurses and hospital administration staff are at constant risk of own infection and are the truly indispensable ones who deserve extra respect and thankfulness.

Having already faced increasing work density and overtime in normal times, their working conditions have in many cases now become almost unbearable. The crisis also shows that in the future considerable investments will be needed to bring the resilience of health systems to a higher level. This concerns equipment, facilities, staff levels and employment conditions.

The President of CESI Trade Council Health, Spanish Nurse Esther Reyes, underlined that “patient safety is directly linked to the number of staff workers responsible for patients – especially doctors and nurses. Therefore, we need to hire sufficient workers in our sector, and we need to provide good working conditions, appropriate safety and health provisions at the workplace and not least fair remuneration. This is just an expression of societal value, respect and recognition – beyond clapping.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) created the Patient Safety Day in 2019 to strengthen the resilience of public health systems and to highlight the need for adequate investment. “Now it is time to move from words to deeds”, Klaus Heeger, Secretary General of CESI, declared. “We have been upholding for many, many years now that public expenditure, especially in the healthcare sector, cannot be simply regarded as a cost. It is an investment – an investment in our future.”

This Patient Safety Day, CESI hopes that everyone, together with us, will “Speak up for health care worker safety” !

CESI Presidium Position Paper on the COVID-19 Pandemic

CESI Presidium Position Paper on the Priorities for More Resilience