Aotearoa Patient Safety Day 2021

Te Rā Haumaru Tūroro o Aotearoa | Aotearoa Patient Safety Day 2021 was observed on Wednesday 17 November 2021.

It was originally planned for 17 September 2021, however, due to COVID-19 alert level changes a decision was made to run the campaign later in the year.

The focus for 2021 was culturally responsive maternity care for whānau, to support maternal wellbeing and maternal and newborn safety. This aligns with the theme of the World Health Organization’s Global Patient Safety Day ‘Safe maternal and newborn care’ (more information here), which was observed earlier in September. 

The Health Quality & Safety Commission produced five video case studies: three tell the stories of women whose culturally responsive health care made a huge difference to their experience of pregnancy and birth; and two include midwives who have delivered culturally responsive health care.

We provided posters, pens, a social media pack and video case studies for health care workers to view and promote. It is recognised that positive maternity care looks different for different people.

The aims for 2021 were to:

• increase culturally responsive care to improve maternity care for all whānau and supporting pregnant women and people’s overall health and wellbeing during pregnancy
• open the discussion to find out what pregnant women and people want and need
• talk with patients and whānau about what is most important to them
• raise health care professionals’ awareness of potential biases and how that affects care.

We encouraged maternity providers to use our posters to promote an event, such as a staff morning tea, to play the videos, and to share the videos widely on social media.