Cardiff University’s Division of Population Medicine has been officially designated as the WHO Collaborating Centre for Patient Safety, Learning and Improvement, under the leadership of Professor Andrew Carson-Stevens, Professor of Patient Safety.
The new Centre’s technical remit is to support WHO in drawing lessons from Member States’ implementation of the “WHO Global patient safety action plan 2021–2030” and supporting WHO’s work on patient safety incident reporting and learning systems. Professor Carson-Stevens and his team have previously supported WHO in producing the most recent “Global patient safety report 2024”.
Speaking about the designation, Professor Carson-Stevens said, “This is a significant moment for Cardiff University and for global health. Patient safety challenges are universal, but solutions emerge when Member States learn with, from and about each other’s experiences. By working together, guided by the Global patient safety action plan, we can strengthen systems, reduce avoidable harm and ultimately save lives. Our Centre is committed to supporting WHO and its Member States in this shared mission.”
The Collaborating Centre will be formally launched on World Patient Safety Day (17 September 2025), which this year has a global theme of “Safe care for every newborn and every child”.
“This collaboration will serve as a force multiplier in our global efforts to improve patient safety. Cardiff University’s WHO Collaborating Centre will play a vital role in strengthening the capacity to learn from patient safety data and incident reports, turning information into meaningful insights and concrete actions. This is essential for countries and health-care facilities working to implement the WHO Global patient safety action plan 2021–2030 and eliminate avoidable harm in health care,” said Dr. Nikhil Prakash Gupta, Responsible Technical Officer for Patient Safety and Quality of Care at WHO.
Parents play a vital role in safer care for children
To reflect the theme of World Patient Safety Day, the launch of the new Centre will highlight recent findings by Cardiff University researchers on the role of parents in protecting children from harm in health-care settings.
A recent study published in the British Journal of General Practice analyzed national patient safety incident reports involving children. It revealed that, in nearly 77% of cases, parents took proactive steps, such as identifying medication issues, chasing delayed referrals or raising concerns to protect their children from harm. Parent actions helped avert or reduce harm in more than half of the incidents reviewed.
The research underscores the vital role parents play as partners in safer care, particularly as children are more vulnerable to health-care-related harm and depend on parents and caregivers to advocate on their behalf. The study calls for greater collaboration between health-care providers and parents to co-design safer systems and improve patient safety outcomes for children.
In addition to the WHO Collaborating Centre for Patient Safety, Learning and Improvement, Cardiff University is also home to the WHO Collaborating Centre for Midwifery Development.
About WHO collaborating centres
WHO collaborating centres are institutions designated by the Director-General of WHO to support the organization in delivering its international health priorities. Centres contribute expertise, strengthen capacity in countries and help WHO translate evidence into practice by supporting the implementation of global health policies and programmes.