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Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Keep health workers safe to keep patients safe—WHO

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1762 days ago
20200917

The World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (WHO) is call­ing on gov­ern­ments and health care lead­ers to ad­dress per­sis­tent threats to the health and safe­ty of health work­ers and pa­tients.

“The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has re­mind­ed all of us of the vi­tal role health work­ers play to re­lieve suf­fer­ing and save lives,” said Dr Tedros Ad­hanom Ghe­breye­sus, WHO Di­rec­tor-Gen­er­al. “No coun­try, hos­pi­tal or clin­ic can keep its pa­tients safe un­less it keeps its health work­ers safe. WHO’s Health Work­er Safe­ty Char­ter is a step to­wards en­sur­ing that health work­ers have the safe work­ing the con­di­tions, the train­ing, the pay and the re­spect they de­serve.”

The pan­dem­ic has al­so high­light­ed the ex­tent to which pro­tect­ing health work­ers is key to en­sur­ing a func­tion­ing health sys­tem and a func­tion­ing so­ci­ety.

The Char­ter, re­leased to­day for World Pa­tient Safe­ty Day, calls on gov­ern­ments and those run­ning health ser­vices at lo­cal lev­els to take five ac­tions to bet­ter pro­tect health work­ers. These in­clude steps to pro­tect health work­ers from vi­o­lence; to im­prove their men­tal health; to pro­tect them from phys­i­cal and bi­o­log­i­cal haz­ards; to ad­vance na­tion­al pro­grammes for health work­er safe­ty; and to con­nect health work­er safe­ty poli­cies to ex­ist­ing pa­tient safe­ty poli­cies.

Mount­ing re­ports of in­fec­tions, ill­ness and at­tacks among health work­ers fight­ing COVID-19

COVID-19 has ex­posed health work­ers and their fam­i­lies to un­prece­dent­ed lev­els of risk. Al­though not rep­re­sen­ta­tive, da­ta from many coun­tries across WHO re­gions in­di­cate that COVID-19 in­fec­tions among health work­ers are far greater than those in the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion.

While health work­ers rep­re­sent less than 3% of the pop­u­la­tion in the large ma­jor­i­ty of coun­tries and less than 2% in al­most all low- and mid­dle-in­come coun­tries, around 14% of COVID-19 cas­es re­port­ed to WHO are among health work­ers. In some coun­tries, the pro­por­tion can be as high as 35%.  How­ev­er, da­ta avail­abil­i­ty and qual­i­ty are lim­it­ed, and it is not pos­si­ble to es­tab­lish whether health work­ers were in­fect­ed in the work­place or in com­mu­ni­ty set­tings. Thou­sands of health work­ers in­fect­ed with COVID-19 have lost their lives world­wide.

In ad­di­tion to phys­i­cal risks, the pan­dem­ic has placed ex­tra­or­di­nary lev­els of psy­cho­log­i­cal stress on health work­ers ex­posed to high-de­mand set­tings for long hours, liv­ing in con­stant fear of dis­ease ex­po­sure while sep­a­rat­ed from fam­i­ly and fac­ing so­cial stigma­ti­za­tion. Be­fore COVID-19 hit, med­ical pro­fes­sion­als were al­ready at high­er risk of sui­cide in all parts of the world. A re­cent re­view of health care pro­fes­sion­als found one in four re­port­ed de­pres­sion and anx­i­ety, and one in three suf­fered in­som­nia dur­ing COVID-19[1].  WHO re­cent­ly high­light­ed an alarm­ing rise in re­ports of ver­bal ha­rass­ment, dis­crim­i­na­tion and phys­i­cal vi­o­lence among health work­ers in the wake of COVID-19.

5 steps to im­prove health work­er safe­ty and pa­tient safe­ty

On World Pa­tient Safe­ty Day, WHO re­minds gov­ern­ments that they have a le­gal and moral re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to en­sure the health, safe­ty, and well­be­ing of health work­ers. The Or­ga­ni­za­tion’s health work­er char­ter calls on all Mem­ber States and rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers to take steps to:

1. Es­tab­lish syn­er­gies be­tween health work­er safe­ty and pa­tient safe­ty poli­cies and strate­gies

●  De­vel­op link­ages be­tween oc­cu­pa­tion­al health and safe­ty, pa­tient safe­ty, qual­i­ty im­prove­ment, and in­fec­tion pre­ven­tion and con­trol pro­grammes.

●  In­clude health and safe­ty skills in per­son­al and pa­tient safe­ty in­to ed­u­ca­tion and train­ing pro­grammes for health work­ers at all lev­els.

●  In­cor­po­rate re­quire­ments for health work­er and pa­tient safe­ty in health care li­cens­ing and ac­cred­i­ta­tion stan­dards.

●  In­te­grate staff safe­ty and pa­tient safe­ty in­ci­dent re­port­ing and learn­ing sys­tems.

●  De­vel­op in­te­grat­ed met­rics of pa­tient safe­ty, health work­er safe­ty and qual­i­ty of care in­di­ca­tors, and in­te­grate with health in­for­ma­tion sys­tem. 

 

2. De­vel­op and im­ple­ment na­tion­al pro­grammes for oc­cu­pa­tion­al health and safe­ty of health work­ers

●  De­vel­op and im­ple­ment na­tion­al pro­grammes for oc­cu­pa­tion­al health for health work­ers in line with na­tion­al oc­cu­pa­tion­al health and safe­ty poli­cies.

●  Re­view and up­grade, where nec­es­sary, na­tion­al reg­u­la­tions and laws for oc­cu­pa­tion­al health and safe­ty to en­sure that all health work­ers have reg­u­la­to­ry pro­tec­tion of their health and safe­ty at work.

●  Ap­point re­spon­si­ble of­fi­cers with au­thor­i­ty for oc­cu­pa­tion­al health and safe­ty for health work­ers at both the na­tion­al and fa­cil­i­ty lev­els.

●  De­vel­op stan­dards, guide­lines, and codes of prac­tice on oc­cu­pa­tion­al health and safe­ty.

●  Strength­en in­ter­sec­toral col­lab­o­ra­tion on health work­er and pa­tient safe­ty, with ap­pro­pri­ate work­er and man­age­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tion, in­clud­ing gen­der, di­ver­si­ty and all oc­cu­pa­tion­al groups.

 

3. Pro­tect health work­ers from vi­o­lence in the work­place

●  Adopt and im­ple­ment in ac­cor­dance with na­tion­al law, rel­e­vant poli­cies and mech­a­nisms to pre­vent and elim­i­nate vi­o­lence in the health sec­tor.

●  Pro­mote a cul­ture of ze­ro tol­er­ance to vi­o­lence against health work­ers

●  Re­view labour laws and oth­er leg­is­la­tion, and where ap­pro­pri­ate the in­tro­duc­tion of spe­cif­ic leg­is­la­tion, to pre­vent vi­o­lence against health work­ers.

●  En­sure that poli­cies and reg­u­la­tions are im­ple­ment­ed ef­fec­tive­ly to pre­vent vi­o­lence and pro­tect health work­ers.

●  Es­tab­lish rel­e­vant im­ple­men­ta­tion mech­a­nisms, such om­budsper­sons and helplines to en­able free and con­fi­den­tial re­port­ing and sup­port for any health work­er fac­ing vi­o­lence.

 

4. Im­prove men­tal health and psy­cho­log­i­cal well-be­ing

●  Es­tab­lish poli­cies to en­sure ap­pro­pri­ate and fair du­ra­tion of de­ploy­ments, work­ing hours, rest break and min­i­miz­ing the ad­min­is­tra­tive bur­den on health work­ers.

●  De­fine and main­tain ap­pro­pri­ate safe staffing lev­els with­in health care fa­cil­i­ties.

●  Pro­vide in­dem­ni­ty and in­sur­ance cov­er­age for work-re­lat­ed risk, es­pe­cial­ly those work­ing in high-risk ar­eas.

●  Es­tab­lish a ‘blame-free’ and just work­ing cul­ture through open com­mu­ni­ca­tion, in­clud­ing le­gal and ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­tec­tion from puni­tive ac­tion on re­port­ing ad­verse safe­ty events.

●  Pro­vide ac­cess to men­tal well-be­ing and so­cial sup­port ser­vices for health work­ers, in­clud­ing ad­vice on work-life bal­ance and risk as­sess­ment and mit­i­ga­tion.

 

5. Pro­tect health work­ers from phys­i­cal and bi­o­log­i­cal haz­ards

●  En­sure the im­ple­men­ta­tion of min­i­mum pa­tient safe­ty, in­fec­tion pre­ven­tion and con­trol, and oc­cu­pa­tion­al safe­ty stan­dards in all health care fa­cil­i­ties across the health sys­tem.

●  En­sure avail­abil­i­ty of per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment (PPE) at all times, as rel­e­vant to the roles and tasks per­formed, in ad­e­quate quan­ti­ty and ap­pro­pri­ate fit and of ac­cept­able qual­i­ty. En­sure an ad­e­quate, lo­cal­ly held, buffer stock of PPE. En­sure ad­e­quate train­ing on the ap­pro­pri­ate use of PPE and safe­ty pre­cau­tions.

●  En­sure ad­e­quate en­vi­ron­men­tal ser­vices such as wa­ter, san­i­ta­tion and hy­giene, dis­in­fec­tion and ad­e­quate ven­ti­la­tion at all health care fa­cil­i­ties.

●  En­sure vac­ci­na­tion of all health work­ers at risk against all vac­cine-pre­ventable in­fec­tions, in­clud­ing He­pati­tis B and sea­son­al in­fluen­za, in ac­cor­dance with the na­tion­al im­mu­niza­tion pol­i­cy, and in the con­text of emer­gency re­sponse, pri­or­i­ty ac­cess for health work­ers to new­ly li­cenced and avail­able vac­cines.

●  Pro­vide ad­e­quate re­sources to pre­vent health work­ers from in­juries, and harm­ful ex­po­sure to chem­i­cals and ra­di­a­tions; pro­vide func­tion­ing and er­gonom­i­cal­ly de­signed equip­ment and work­sta­tions to min­i­mize mus­cu­loskele­tal in­juries and falls.

In ad­di­tion to the Health Work­er Safe­ty Char­ter, WHO has al­so out­lined spe­cif­ic World Pa­tient Safe­ty Day 2020 Goals for health care lead­ers to in­vest in, mea­sure, and im­prove health work­er safe­ty over the next year. The goals are in­tend­ed for health care fa­cil­i­ties to ad­dress five ar­eas:  pre­vent­ing sharps in­juries; re­duc­ing work-re­lat­ed stress and burnout; im­prov­ing the use of per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment; pro­mot­ing ze­ro tol­er­ance to vi­o­lence against health work­ers; and an­a­lyz­ing se­ri­ous safe­ty re­lat­ed in­ci­dents.

For more in­for­ma­tion on World Pa­tient Safe­ty Day Cam­paign, vis­it  https://www.who.int/cam­paigns/world-pa­tient-safe­ty-day/2020


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