Patient Solidarity Day takes place each December. Thousands of people from around the world rally around one key issue facing patients and raise awareness by hosting events and showing support for the Day.

Patient Solidarity Day 2021

On Friday 3rd December 2021, health stakeholders from all over the world will stand together, united in celebration of Patient Solidarity Day (PSD). This will be the ninth year running that we have joined hands to mark the Day.

On PSD 2021, IAPO members, patients, various healthcare organizations, policy-makers, academia, institutions, industry and other stakeholders will come together to call for patient co-creation in the implementation of the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 (GPSAP 21-30) to ensure zero patient harm globally.

PSD 2021 theme, ‘Patients Co-creating Safe Healthcare’, will allow us to rally around a key tenet of IAPO’s Patient-centred Healthcare Declaration that patients must be able to participate, to their level of ability and preference, as a partner in making healthcare decisions that affect their lives.

PSD 2021 will be a moment to urge the whole of government and whole of society to work with the whole of the patient community in national unity and global solidarity to ensure that patients and families are engaged and empowered to help and support the journey to safer healthcare (Strategic Objective 4 of GPSAP 21-30).

 

About the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030

The Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 envisions a world in which no one is harmed in health care, and every patient receives safe and respectful care, every time, everywhere by driving forward policies, strategies and actions, based on science, patient experience, system design and partnerships, to eliminate all sources of avoidable risk and harm to patients and health workers.

The plan was adopted by member states at this year’s 74th World Health Assembly (WHA), through the Decision WHA74(13), Agenda item 13.1. With the adoption, the WHA requested the WHO Director-General  to  report  back  on  progress  in  the  implementation  of  the GPSAP 21-30 to the Seventy-sixth World Health Assembly in 2023 , and thereafter every two years until 2031.

The plan is built on 6 guiding principles and 7 strategic objectives as a solid basis from which all health stakeholders will be able to promote a culture of patient safety at all levels globally. It will also serve as an umbrella framework providing strategic direction for concrete actions to be taken by countries and their care facilities to improve patient safety for the next 10 years.

The GPSAP 21-30 has a big focus on patient engagement and co-creation in safe healthcare by creating an enabling environment through the Framework for Action - The 7x5 Matrix for the incorporation of the perspectives of patients and their families within the plan and its implementation. 

Further, each WHO Member States, when deciding to adopt the GPSAP 21-30 at the 74th World Health Assembly, resolved to work in collaboration with and include their national civil society organizations, patients’ organizations, professional bodies, academic and research institutions, industry, and other relevant stakeholders to promote, prioritize and embed patient safety in all health policies and strategies.

Therefore, PSD 2021 is concentrating on Strategic Objective 4 - Patient and family engagement of the GPSAP 21-30: 

 

Follow and join the buzz on social media - #PSD2021

Stay tuned for more resources to help you call for patients co-creating safe healthcare.

 

 

Past PSD themes

2014 - One voice. United. Universal.

2015 - Healthcare is a human right

2016 - Leave no-one behind: Sustainable patient-centred universal health coverage by 2030 

2017 - Globally Empowered Patients: Power through Knowledge

2018 - Safe Medication and Healthcare for All 

2019 - Accelerating Progress for Safe Patient-Centred UHC