Five patients die every minute from wrong treatment, according to the World Health Organization

Every year, 2.6 million people die in low- and middle-income countries due to faulty medical care, according to a recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO hopes to address the issue by launching a campaign of solidarity with patients on the first World Patient Safety Day, September 17.

"No one should be harmed when using health care. Yet globally, at least 5 patients die every minute due to unsafe care,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

Bad education in medicine?

According to the report, 4 out of 10 patients suffer consequences during primary care and outpatient treatment. Most often, errors occur in the diagnosis, dispensing and use of medicines. The costs of issuing the wrong drugs amount to 42 billion dollars a year.

"We need a culture of patient safety that promotes partnership with patients, encourages reporting and learning from mistakes, and creates a guilt-free environment where healthcare professionals are empowered and trained to prevent errors," Ghebreyesus said.In addition, unsafe surgical procedures as a result they have 1 million deaths during or immediately after surgery – every year. WHO emphasizes that this is unacceptable and encourages urgent reactions from countries as an attempt to reduce this number.

 

According to the WHO, improving patient safety can even lead to significant financial savings. In the US alone, certain safety improvements in Medicare hospitals led to savings of about $28 billion between 2010 and 2015.

 

Source: https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/09/1046552