Tokyo
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Discours prononcé en anglais. Texte original, non traduit.
Dear Minister Kato,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to be here today at the Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety.
Let me thank you, Minister Kato, for the warm welcome and the excellent dinner last night.
This event addresses a very relevant, global and urgent health issue: strengthening patient safety.
It is a challenge which we need to tackle together. It is a field where we need to deepen international co-operation.
“Primum non nocere – first do no harm”.
In his invitation, Minister Kato rightly characterized this message as a guiding principle of high-quality health care.
First and foremost, more patient safety means less harm and thus less suffering for patients and their relatives.
Patient safety is at the core of what we aim for in public health.
However, a better patient safety also means saving money.
We all saw the numbers of the OECD study which was published last year. The report suggests that fifteen percent of hospital expenditure and activity in OECD countries can be attributed to treating safety failures.
In Switzerland, we estimate that preventable adverse events are responsible for four hundred twenty thousand additional days spent in hospitals per year. This equals the capacity of a large hospital.
I don’t know any minister of health who would not like to prevent so much suffering and save such a large amount of money in his budget. And use it to make public health care more affordable and more accessible.
Costs of health care are rising everywhere. And they do so at faster rates than the income of the big majority of the people. This affects them increasingly, especially families.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Patient safety is related to issues we all have to deal with, like the ageing of our societies.
Up to half of the inhabitants of nursing homes in Europe take potentially dangerous medicines.
In Switzerland, elderly people in nursing homes, who have to take medicines regularly, get on average 7 medicines prescribed at the same time. We all know, in general that’s too much. And Switzerland is no exception. Polypharmacy significantly increases the risk of adverse events.
These figures are telling. They tell us that we don’t do enough to protect each and every patient – primum non nocere. And they tell us that we must tackle these issues together – globally.
Patient safety starts at the local level – it is the responsibility of every hospital, every nursing home and every doctor’s office.
But it does not end there.
If the issues are the same it would be irresponsible not to learn from each other and not to act conjointly.
As all of us have done so already.
In Switzerland for example, we have profited a great deal from others in the area of surgical checklists or medication safety. We adapted the improvement model from the U.S., and learned from experiences from Denmark and Canada for our own national quality programs.
Another example are our quality indicators for hospitals. They are based on a model which we use together with Germany and Austria. This collaboration includes the periodical refinement of the indicators.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
To make another step forward, we need to raise awareness for patient safety. Within the health system as well as in health politics.
In order to reduce adverse events in a hospital it takes everybody: the medical staff of course, but also the hospital management as well as the politicians who decide about new projects on quality in health care.
What is needed is a sense of importance and urgency: a strong patient safety culture at all levels of the health system and in health politics.
This is where global co-operation comes in.
Let me take the opportunity to congratulate the founders of the “Global Movement on Patient Safety”, the United Kingdom and Germany. They have paved the way. And Japan is now carrying on the initiative.
Together we can raise awareness at international level.
We can increase transparency of our health systems by an adequate monitoring and publication of the results. With data that meets international standards of quality and reliability.
We can learn from one another and exchange best practices.
We can address different priorities in different regions of the world. It might be training in hygiene or the use of surgical checklists for some. For others it might be to not only reduce mistakes in operation rooms but also to reduce incentives for unnecessary operations or medicines. In some areas, oversupply is also part of the problem.
The next step in patient safety is to strengthen its global approach even further. And to turn the Global Movement into a “Global Action on Patient Safety”. Integrated under the roof of the World Health Organization.
I believe that this will serve as a catalyst to reach our common goal.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Switzerland is strongly committed to actively engage in the future “Global Action on Patient Safety”. And to establish a WHO-recognized “World Patient Safety Day”.
For now, I would like to invite you to approve the “Tokyo Declaration on Patient Safety” today.
I am looking forward to lively discussions and I wish us all a successful summit.
Thank you.