I was interested to read this perspective article in The Lancet.
Tim Baker: bringing systems change to acute health-care provision
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)01823-4/fulltext?dgcid=raven_jbs_etoc_email
Here are extracts:
'In 2025 Baker and colleagues’ African Critical Illness Outcomes Study (ACIOS) on the prevalence of critical illness in 22 African nations was published. “Before ACIOS there was very little data on the size of the problem, or what's happening to these patients”, says Baker. “It's a much larger problem than usually thought. Often, when people think of critical illness, they assume these patients are in ICUs, and as there are only a few ICU beds, it appears to be a minor issue. But ACIOS found that one in eight inpatients are critically ill and less than half of them receive essential emergency and critical care. They need oxygen, they need fluids, they need basic airway management, and they’re not getting this care. And they’re scattered through the hospital. They’re not on ICUs. They’re on the paediatric ward. They’re on the maternal ward. They’re on the surgical ward. They’re all over the place.”... if Essential Emergency and Critical Care was provided to all patients who need it, 1 million deaths each year could be averted'.
The paper does not mention patient safety, but clearly it is a major patient safety issue if less than than half of critically ill patients in hospital are receiving essential care.
Patient safety is about so much more than correcting errors. Poor quality care is unsafe care.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org