It has been more than 20 years since the 1999 publication of To err is human: Building a Safer Health System by the Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. Since then, numerous studies have been conducted, many national strategies have been published and best practices for improving patient safety in healthcare systems have been proposed. The WHO has led initiatives to improve patient safety by promoting 3 global challenges: Clean care is safer care, the safe surgery checklist, and the medication without harm challenge. A patient safety curriculum guide multiprofessional and the celebration of World Patient Safety Day on September 17th, the involvement of patients in patient safety among the last initiatives. In primary care (PC), good practices have been introduced and patient safety incident reporting systems have been extended. 

In the scientific Spanish journal, Atención Primaria, we have discussed the impact of COVD19 pandemic on Spanish PC values, such as proximity, longitudinally, comprehensiveness, community orientation, affecting the quality and safety of care through patient safety incidents' reporting systems and patients' experiencies: https://www.elsevier.es/es-revista-atencion-primaria-27-sumario-vol-53-num-s1-S0212656721X00121. Abstracts in English available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/atencion-primaria/vol/53/suppl/S1 

It is essential for the future of a safer primary care to be aware of the changes the COVID19 pandemic has introduced, to build a new risk management map and address it thoroughly.

Published on 12 March 2022.