Patient safety in the spotlight
On World Patient Safety Day, we, along with Patient Voice Aotearoa, and Health Consumer Advocacy Alliance, brought patients, health workers, advocates and politicians together in Auckland to talk about what happens when our health system fails to keep people safe, and what needs to change.
But the most important voices in the room belonged to the patients.
Three people and their families shared deeply personal and emotional stories about what happened when the health system failed them. They spoke about the impact on their health, their whānau and their lives.
Their experiences were different, but the message running through them was hard to miss. When our health system is stretched too far, it is patients who pay the price.
We also heard from Dr David Galler and nurse Sophie Tombs about patient safety from inside the health system.
We then questioned the political parties directly, covering the issues affecting patient safety and the wider pressures on our health system. Their representatives had the opportunity to respond to what they had heard from patients and health workers, and to set out what their parties would do about it.
You can watch their answers, and the full forum, below.
The forum and the issues raised there were covered by 1News, RNZ and the New Zealand Herald, taking these stories and the wider issue of patient safety to audiences across the country.
Nick Rockel also wrote a characteristically frank account of the forum, including the patient stories, the questions put to political parties and their responses.
Missed the forum? Watch it here.
The stories shared by our patients were deeply personal and emotional. They deserve to be heard, and the issues they raised deserve more than one day of attention.
You can watch the full Patient Safety Forum here
Patient safety isn't a separate problem from everything else happening in healthcare.
If people are waiting too long for care, if there aren't enough staff, if health workers are stretched beyond what is reasonable, and if services don't have the resources they need, eventually something gives.
And too often, it is patients who carry the consequences.
That's why we will keep talking about patient safety, and keep pushing for a public health system that has the people, funding and resources it needs to care for all of us.
Image by Simon Diprose