Speak Up and Conquer Silence

Nationally, and even globally, the awareness of patient safety is growing, but not fast enough.  If, moving forward, we don't change anything further to how we handle patient safety, 1.2 million Canadians will die from preventable patient harm in the next 30 years.

This is why the World Health Organization declared it's first World Patient Safety day on September 17th this year.  And it is why the Canadian Patient Safety Institute has taken WHO's challenge to 'Speak Up for Patient Safety' and turned it into a campaign to #ConquerSilence.

CPSI shares on their website;

"At some point, every one of us will be a patient in the healthcare system. What most Canadians don’t realize, is that 28,000 of us die from preventable harm when receiving care, every single year. This makes patient safety incidents the third leading cause of death in Canada, behind cancer and heart disease. One in three Canadians has had patient harm affect themselves or a loved one, yet the public is collectively unaware that the problem exists. This is a silent epidemic.

What we must battle in our collective efforts to reduce patient harm, is systemic silence. 

Silence between patients and providers, between colleagues in healthcare facilities, between administrators in different regions, and between the public and policymakers. If something looks wrong, feels wrong, or is wrong – we need people to speak up, in the moment. It is only by bringing these issues to light that we can begin to work together to solve them."

                                                                                              www.patientsafetyinstitute.ca

Part of this year's Canadian Patient Safety Week theme involves a call to join CPSI in sharing stories and advice on how to reduce patient harm at ConquerSilence.ca which launches next Monday, October 21, 2019.  They also have many other events for CPSW throughout the week of October 28-November 1, 2019.  For more information on how you can get involved with any CPSW events and the #ConquerSilence campaign, please visit us at MIPS>Canadian Patient Safety Week.

Your inner voice can save lives.