Putting safety on the curriculum

doi:10.1136/bmj.b3725

Published 15 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3725
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3725

Feature

Patient Safety

Putting safety on the curriculum

Oliver Ellis, Clegg scholar

¹ BMJ, London WC1H 9JR

oellis@bmj.com

WHO wants patient safety to be included from the start of medicaleducation, Oliver Ellis reports

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The idea that health care actually harms patients has been aroundfor some time, but until now little has been done to educatefuture doctors about the problem. However, the World HealthOrganization hopes that this will change with the publicationof its curriculum guide next year. The new curriculum, currentlybeing piloted, will detail how medical schools should teachpatient safety to undergraduate doctors.

The publication builds on growing concerns that medical errorshave high human and financial costs. Back in 2000, the Instituteof Medicine’s Committee on Quality of Health Care in Americafound that in the US alone up to 98 000 deaths a year couldbe attributed to medical error, costing between $17bn (£10bn; ${euro}$ 12bn) and $29bn. It concluded that: "The status quo is simplynot acceptable and cannot be tolerated any longer."¹