Overview

• On 17 September, WHO issued a global call to prioritise “Safe care for every newborn and every child” under the slogan “Patient safety from the start.”
• South Africa’s Department of Health, in partnership with WHO and PHASA, hosted a webinar to mobilise stakeholders and discuss safer care, including infections, community safety and childhood injuries.
• WHO estimates that about one in ten patients are harmed in healthcare and that unsafe care contributes to more than 3 million deaths each year worldwide.
• Common, preventable sources of harm include medication and diagnostic errors, healthcare-associated infections, surgical complications and incidents involving medical devices.
• The 2025 campaign seeks to raise awareness, drive government and health-system action, empower parents and caregivers, and strengthen paediatric safety research in support of universal health coverage and SDG target 3.2.