GPSAP 2021 to 2030: Strategic Objective 4

Strategic Objective 4, Patient and Family Engagement, focuses on engaging and empowering patients and families to help and support the journey to safer health care. The 5 key strategies are:

• Strategy 4.1: Engage patients, families and civil society organizations in co‑development of policies, plans, strategies, programmes and guidelines to make health care safer.
• Strategy 4.2: Learn from the experience of patients and families exposed to unsafe care to improve understanding of the nature of harm and foster the development of more effective solutions.
• Strategy 4.3: Build the capacity of patient advocates and champions in patient safety.
• Strategy 4.4: Establish the principle and practice of openness and transparency throughout health care, including through patient safety incident disclosure to patients and families.
• Strategy 4.5: Provide information and education to patients and families for their involvement in selfcare and empower them for shared decision-making.

Refer to Global Patient Safety Action Plan (GPSAP) 2021-2030 for the detailed framework for action through the 7 Strategic Objectives and 35 strategies. Each strategy is further operationalized into suggested actions for four key groups or categories of partners: governments, health care facilities and services, stakeholders and the WHO Secretariat.