In her opening address at the three-day EU Patient Safety Summit in November 2005, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt described patient safety as a “global issue” and called for improvements in the way countries throughout the world work together to provide safer healthcare for their patients.
Patricia Hewitt also commended the good work already done and called for further action towards “a lasting legacy of safer healthcare.” To support her calls for improved collaboration the Secretary of State announced that the UK will provide £5 million a year for the next five years to the World Alliance for Patient Safety.
The Patient Safety Summit concluded a programme of health-focussed events which ran throughout the six month UK Presidency of the EU. The event was used to share solutions and drive forward progress by examining issues such as learning from other “high-risk” industries, improved reporting and learning from patient safety incidents and more clearly focussed education and research.
