European Commission proposal on Patient Safety
The European Commission has recently adopted a Communication and a proposal for a Council Recommendation on patient safety, including the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections.
by:
Noel Harrington.
on 15-06-2009
Communication Intro:
Despite the obvious benefits of modern medicine there is growing awareness that healthcare
interventions may sometimes result in preventable harm to the patient. Patient safety1 is an
issue of increasing concern in healthcare systems all over the world. Infections in hospitals
and other healthcare settings are a particular problem for patients and health services in all
countries and receive considerable media and political attention.
Among the most commonly occurring adverse events2 are healthcare associated infections
(HCAIs)3, medication-related events and complications during or after surgical interventions.
Some adverse events are linked to the intrinsic risks of necessary interventions or
medications. Other adverse events, however, are caused by potentially avoidable medical
errors, for example, errors in diagnosis, failure to act on the results of tests, prescribing,
dispensing or administering the wrong medicine, or in the wrong dose or in combination with
an inappropriate medicine, or by the failure of medical equipment. The Commission has
already taken specific steps in many areas to address the issue of patient safety. However
these have focused mostly on specific sources of risk such as the safety of medicines, medical
devices and resistance to antimicrobials. Building on those achievements, this
Communication on patient safety aims to outline an integrated approach, placing patient
safety at the core of high quality healthcare systems by bringing together all factors that have
an impact on the safety of patients.
To view the full Communication and proposal for a Recommendation (available in different languages) see
http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_systems/patient_eu_en.htm
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