TEHRAN – World Patient Safety Day aims to raise public awareness to improve patient safety. This year’s slogan, ‘Patient safety from the start!’, emphasizes the urgent need to act early and consistently to prevent harm throughout childhood, and yield benefits across the life course.

The resolution WHA 72.6 ‘Global action on patient safety’ recognizes patient safety as a global health priority and endorses the establishment of World Patient Safety Day to be observed annually on September 17.

Every child has the right to safe, quality health care — from the very beginning. Yet, newborns and young children face higher risks due to their rapid development, evolving health needs, and different disease patterns. They rely on adults to speak up and make decisions for them. Children may also face added challenges depending on their socio-economic circumstances, such as not being able to get the care they need. These factors make them more susceptible to harm if care isn’t specifically adapted to their age, size, health condition, and context.

A single safety incident can have lifelong consequences for a child’s health and development. That’s why World Patient Safety Day 2025 is dedicated to ensuring safe care for every newborn and child, with a special focus on those from birth to nine years old.

Under the slogan ‘Patient safety from the start!’, the World Health Organization (WHO) calls for urgent action to eliminate avoidable harm in paediatric and newborn care. Addressing this challenge requires comprehensive efforts across key patient safety areas, such as safe childbirth and postnatal care, medication safety, diagnostic safety, immunization safety, infection prevention, and early recognition of clinical deterioration. World Patient Safety Day 2025 aims to drive meaningful improvements and reaffirm every child’s right to safe and quality care.

It calls on parents, caregivers, health practitioners, health care leaders, educators, and communities to unite in action to prevent avoidable harm in paediatric care and to build a safer, healthier future for every child, as part of the global effort to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.

The main objectives of World Patient Safety Day 2025 are to:

1. Raise global awareness of safety risks in paediatric and newborn care in all health care settings, emphasizing the specific needs of children, families, and caregivers.

2. Mobilize governments, health care organizations, professional bodies, and civil society to implement sustainable strategies for safer care for newborns and children as part of broader patient safety and quality initiatives.

3. Empower parents, caregivers, and children in patient safety by promoting education, awareness, and active participation in care.

4. Advocate for strengthening research on patient safety in paediatric and newborn care.

The Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 recognizes paediatric and newborn safety across multiple strategic objectives, including designing safe clinical processes, strengthening health workforce competencies, engaging patients and families, and establishing learning systems to prevent harm. It also calls for patient safety education, including a dedicated curriculum for older school-aged children, equipping them with essential knowledge on safety principles and self-advocacy in health care.