Report from the Commission to the Council. The Commission’s second report to the Council on the implementation of Council Recommendation 2009/C 151/01 on patient safety, including the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections

Council Recommendation 2009/C 151/01 put forward a range of measures on general patient safety and healthcare-associated infections (HAI) and invited the Commission to report on whether the measures are working effectively and to consider the need for further action.

The Commission’s first report, which was published in 2012, demonstrated satisfactory progress in the development of national policies and programmes on patient safety. It also identified areas requiring further effort: the education and training of healthcare workers in patient safety, empowering patients and developing a culture of learning from errors.

The report showed uneven progress across the EU. Some Member States reported that implementation had been slowed by financial constraints resulting from the economic crisis. The Commission therefore proposed that its monitoring of the implementation of the general patient safety provisions be extended for another two years.

The part of this report on general patient safety is based on Member States’ responses to a questionnaire from the Commission, replies to the public consultation and the results of the Eurobarometer survey on citizens’ experience and perception of the safety and quality of healthcare. It also presents EU-level activities supporting the implementation of the Recommendation in the area of general patient safety.

Recent findings by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) show that HAI continue to be a problem in Europe. The chapter on HAI presents EU-level activities in support of Member States’ implementation of the Recommendation.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)371: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:371:FIN

ESO: Background information: Patient safety: progress made, more needed http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-patient-safety-progress-made-more-needed/

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