Keynote Message at the 7th Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety

Dr Teodoro J. Herbosa, Secretary of Health, Department of Health, Philippines;

Mr Eduardo Banzon, Director, Health Practice Team, Human and Social Development Office, Sectors Group, Asian Development Bank;

Honourable Ministers; excellencies; distinguished representatives of various Member States; ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honour to deliver this keynote address at this year's Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety.

I sincerely thank the Department of Health of the Philippines for its leadership and warm hospitality during this important Summit.

WHO is privileged to co-sponsor this Summit, reaffirming our shared commitment to ensuring safe health care for all.

As a surgeon, I have witnessed firsthand the challenges and triumphs of health care across diverse communities. Growing up in the Pacific, I have developed a deep appreciation for the resilience of small island nations, and the role that communities play in shaping health outcomes.

At the heart of health care beats a fundamental principle: trust between patients and providers. Like arteries delivering oxygen to vital organs, this trust fuels every exchange, ensuring the system remains strong, responsive and alive. When fractured, it's like a clogged vessel, straining the flow and putting the entire system at risk.

The Hippocratic Oath reminds us: "First, do no harm." Are we doing enough - truly enough - to honour this foundational promise to the people we serve? How can each of us make a real difference? The answers lie not just in our discussions here, but in implementing the commitments we make beyond this room.

The theme of this year's Summit, "Weaving Strengths for the Future of Patient Safety Throughout the Healthcare Continuum", aligns with our regional vision: "Weaving Health for Families, Communities, and Societies."

Like weaving, patient safety requires precision, collaboration and resilience; demanding collaborative action from governments, experts, health workers, patients and partners.

This Summit is a rare opportunity to shape the future of patient safety. We must make it count.

Despite progress, patient harm remains a major global issue even in the most advanced health systems.

In high-income countries, one in every ten patients experiences harm during hospital care, and much of it is preventable.

In low- and middle-income countries, 134 million adverse events occur every year-leading to 2.6 million preventable deaths. That's 2.6 million lives that could have been saved, 2.6 million families forever changed.

These numbers are not just statistics-they represent lives lost, families changed, and eroded trust in health care.

Behind every statistic is a human story-a mother holding her newborn, a father recovering from injury, a teenager managing a chronic condition, a newborn opening their eyes to the world. Every improvement we make restores trust, dignity and hope.

The Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030 vision is clear: "A world in which no one is harmed in health care, and every patient receives safe and respectful care, every time, everywhere."

The challenge is no longer about defining what needs to be done, as we have the plans and the roadmaps to guide our actions. However, despite a clear way forward in patient safety, significant implementation challenges remain.

Globally, only a limited number of countries have adequate financial and human resources for implementing patient safety initiatives, resulting in fragmented efforts, preventing the scaling up of interventions, and hindering the spread of a strong safety culture to the levels of ambulatory and primary care.

Blame culture remains deeply entrenched, discouraging health workers from reporting errors, hindering the implementation of incident reporting systems, and obstructing efforts to foster transparency, continuous learning, and ultimately reducing avoidable harm, highlighting the need for systemic changes to embed patient safety in health-care delivery.

It cannot yet be said that psychological safety is being fully practised. Patient engagement is also still limited. We must ensure that patients, families and health workers are truly empowered to contribute to safer care.

Patient safety has long been shaped primarily within hospital settings. To truly protect patients and strengthen health systems, we should integrate safety, from at-home care to community-based first-contact care, and on to hospital treatments. This is where our focus must be.

As WHO, we believe that this Summit is not just a moment of reflection but a call to urgent action. It provides a platform for decision-makers, experts, health-care workers, patients and partners to engage in shaping the future of patient safety, ensuring discussions extend beyond hospitals to governance and primary care.

Patient safety is about preventing harm; it is about protecting people in their most vulnerable moments. It is about ensuring a mother does not lose life when bringing life, a child undergoing treatment receives the best care possible, and health-care workers have the support they need to provide safe, high-quality care.

In conclusion, patient safety must be the standard throughout the patient's journey in the continuum of care. We owe this to our patients, we owe this to ourselves as health-care professionals, and we owe this to the Oath we all took and that we are all accountable to.

I leave you with this quote by Mahatma Gandhi: "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."

Let's come together, with true re-commitment and collective action, to uphold the very foundation of patient care: First, do no harm.

Wishing you all a successful meeting in the next two days. Thank you.