Every child deserves safe, quality health care – from the very beginning. Yet, millions of children around the world are still being failed by health systems that are not designed or equipped to meet their unique needs. On World Patient Safety Day 2025, WHO is calling for urgent global action to protect children from unsafe care, under the slogan, “Patient safety from the start!”
This year’s campaign shines a spotlight on paediatric safety, emphasizing that ensuring safe care for newborns and children is not just a health priority – it is a cornerstone of achieving universal health coverage (UHC). Unsafe care is a silent crisis that disproportionately affects children and newborns, contributing to millions of preventable deaths each year.
Why paediatric safety is essential for UHC
Children's rapid development, dependency on caregivers, and vulnerability to environmental and social determinants of health make them uniquely susceptible to harm in health-care settings. Safe, age-appropriate, and child-centred care is essential to ensure that every child can survive and thrive.
On too many occasions, children face unsafe care due to under-resourced facilities, insufficiently supported health workers, inadequate safety systems and poor family engagement. These gaps not only lead to avoidable deaths and disabilities but also undermine public trust and increase the burden on health systems.
The burden of unsafe paediatric care
Unsafe care is a leading contributor to child mortality and long-term disability, especially in the early stages of life. Reviews of paediatric care reveal a troubling reality: harmful incidents are widespread, affecting up to one in two children admitted to hospital wards. In intensive care units, the rates are even more alarming, with some studies reporting harm in up to nine in ten children, though these figures vary across contexts and methodologies.
The most common causes of harm include:
- medication errors
- diagnostic errors
- health care-associated infection
- surgical complications, and
- incidents related to medical devices.
Children with special medical needs or those dependent on medical technology are particularly vulnerable, facing significantly higher risks of adverse events.
The WHO Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 identifies paediatric safety as a critical area for intervention, emphasizing that preventable harm in early life stages contributes significantly to child mortality and undermines long-term health outcomes and system resilience.
Unsafe care doesn't just result in immediate harm. It can lead to lifelong disabilities, extended hospital stays, and repeat treatments, placing additional strain on families and health systems. In low-resource settings, the absence of basic infrastructure – such as clean water, sterile equipment, and trained staff—further amplifies these risks. In humanitarian and fragile contexts, even minor safety lapses can have devastating consequences.
This growing body of evidence makes one thing clear: investing in paediatric safety is not only a moral imperative – it is a strategic necessity for building resilient health systems and achieving universal health coverage.
The good news is that over 50% of patient harm is preventable. Investing in paediatric safety saves lives, strengthens health systems and accelerates progress toward UHC. For example:
- improving the quality of care could save up to 1 million newborns annually;
- engaging patients and families in care can reduce harm by up to 15%; and
- safer care reduces costs by preventing complications and reducing hospital stays.
A call to action: safety is a must
To achieve UHC, governments and partners must recognize that safe care for children is is a prerequisite for health equity, resilience, and sustainability.
WHO urges all stakeholders to act:
- Health leaders: Prioritize paediatric safety in national health strategies. Invest in training, infrastructure, and data systems.
- Health workers: Deliver care that is safe, child-centred, and adapted to each child’s needs.
- Parents and caregivers: Be active participants in your child’s care. Ask questions, stay informed, and speak up.
- Educators: Empower children to understand and engage in their own health care.
- Civil society: Advocate for safe care in all settings, especially in underserved and crisis-affected communities.
From birth through childhood, every child deserves a safe start. Let’s make paediatric safety a global priority because universal health coverage begins with safe care for the youngest among us.