Seguridad del paciente. Una necesidad para el cuidado.

Abstract

Decreasing adverse events and medical errors has become an international health issue, therefore in October 2004 the WHO (World Health Organization) established the Alliance for Patient Safety by performing one first workshop in which 6 action areas were set; 1. the campaign for nosocomial infections prevention, 2. Patient safety investigation, 3. Patient safety taxonomy, 4. Reporting and Learning for Patient Safety, 5. Solutions for Reducing Risks, and the 6th “ Patients for the Defense of their Safety” that was developed through families and was pushed out by people who suffered damage by medical errors and that have worked to improve health services quality. With this in mind in November 2005 in London with 24 female attendants from Sudan, Australia, and Mexico, the so called London Statement was presented, where the perspective of patient as an active change agent for improving health service quality was highlighted, specially the rights for mother-child health, by means of exposing their own life stories. One of the main issues and with mayor relevance was to focus attention on assistance for the less protected and discriminated groups, and it was proposed to create networks bonds with those institutions, associations, and groups, and civil associations that work at regional and world levels such as those in the USA and Canada, and that work jointly with the WHO.