World Patient Safety Day

On Wednesday, 17 September 2025, patients, caregivers, and healthcare leaders around the world will come together to celebrate the annual World Patient Safety Day. 

World Patient Safety Day is an opportunity for individuals and healthcare organisations around the globe to recognise the importance of achieving and sustaining exceptional patient safety throughout all aspects of healthcare, including clinical laboratory testing.

The Origins of World Patient Safety Day

Seven years ago, World Patient Safety Day was established by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which introduced the first World Patient Safety Day on 17th September 2019. The dedicated day was created to help bring awareness to the importance of patient safety, something which was considered a global health priority at the 2017 World Health Assembly (WHA). 

Since 2019, World Patient Safety Day has taken place every year on the 17th September, with each year having a different theme to bring focus on a different aspect of global patient safety. Past themes have consisted of:

• Speak up for Patient Safety - 2019
• Health Worker Safety - 2020
• Safe Maternal and Newborn Care - 2021
• Medication Safety - 2022
• Engaging Patients for Patient Safety - 2023
• Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety - 2024

The theme for World Patient Safety Day 2025 is ‘Safe Care for Every Newborn and Every Child.’

How Do External Quality Assessments for Clinical Laboratories Help Improve Patient Safety?

At UK NEQAS Immunology, Immunochemistry & Allergy (IIA), our external quality assessments ensure that a laboratory's testing within these areas is consistently accurate and reliable. We provide an independent service for medical laboratories across the world to help improve their clinical testing standards and processes. All of our participating laboratories are tested to the same standard, helping us build a global level of quality which ensures patients receive the same quality of care regardless of where they are tested.

External quality assessments identify a laboratory’s weaknesses in regard to testing processes, equipment calibration, and staff competency, and monitor their quality overtime to identify improvements as well as any deterioration in standards. This helps laboratories comply with global standards in clinical testing.

Improving the accuracy of clinical testing leads to more accurate and informed patient diagnosis and treatment plans. Inaccurate clinical testing could lead to a misdiagnosis, resulting in insufficient levels of care or ineffective treatment.

How Do External Quality Assessments for Clinical Laboratories Help Improve Patient Safety for Infants and Children?

When carrying out our clinical testing for infants and children, it is important that the laboratories take extra precautions in order to deliver accurate and reliable results. Infants and children can often only provide very small blood samples, meaning there is less room for repeat testing if a clinical laboratory brings back inconclusive results.

These factors need to be taken into account when carrying out external quality assessments for laboratories handling paediatric samples. Inaccurate laboratory testing can have significant negative impacts on a child’s health and safety, including risks of overdose, developmental delays, or delayed diagnosis of critical conditions, which would need early intervention.