To mark World Patient Safety Day 2026, Advanced Pharmacy Australia (AdPha) has launched its fifth annual World Patient Safety Day series, authored by members of the AdPha Medication Safety Leadership Committee.
This year’s theme: Safe care for noncommunicable diseases. Safe care for life! – highlights the importance of preventing medication-related harm for people living with conditions that require ongoing care and treatment. Across seven articles, the series explores medication safety through different clinical perspectives, from cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease to the challenges of care transitions and medication management beyond hospital walls.
Nam-Anh Nguyen FANZCAP (MedsMgmt, MedSafety), Chair of the AdPha Medication Safety Leadership Committee, says medication safety is an essential part of care throughout a person’s life.
“Every pharmacist is involved in medication safety.
“People living with noncommunicable diseases often interact with the health system over many years, across different settings and with multiple medicines. This creates many opportunities for medication-related harm, but also many opportunities for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to make care safer.
“Our fifth World Patient Safety Day series brings together the experience and expertise of our Leadership Committee to explore some of these challenges – and the practical ways we can strengthen medication safety throughout the patient journey.
“We hope the series encourages our members to think about medication safety in
every aspect of their practice, to share their insights and to keep working together to
make safe care a reality for life.”
The World Health Organisation’s 2026 campaign focuses on noncommunicable diseases,
which often require long-term care across multiple settings and can expose people to
safety risks over time. The campaign calls for action across the continuum of care,
including safer medication use and meaningful engagement with people living with these
conditions.
The 2026 World Patient Safety Day Series includes:
• Wendy Ewing FANZCAP (MedSafety), opens the series outlining the importance of
medication safety across the continuum of care and healthcare settings.
• Lisa Robertson FANZCAP (Lead&Mgmt, MedSafety) explores the impact of noncommunicable
diseases on children and adolescents and the unique medication
safety challenges these patients can experience.
• Claire FitzGerald FANZCAP offers a compelling discussion of when cancer care can
be considered as chronic disease, providing opportunities for providing consistent
and confident care for patient and pharmacist upskilling.
• Nam-Anh Nguyen FANZCAP (MedsMgmt, MedSafety), discusses safe care for
diabetes, particularly relating to insulin safety, and advocates for patients to be
empowered to maintain ownership of their diabetes management.
• David Nguyen FANZCAP (Informatics, MedSafety) introduces key medication safety
risks for patients living with chronic respiratory disease, including corticosteroids
use and inhaler section and the importance of shared decision-making and
ensuring patients have informed escalation plans.
• Mika Varitimos FANZCAP (Edu., MedSafety) focuses on cardiovascular disease as it
often involves the use of high-risk medicines. Mika explains how individualised risk
profiles must be routinely assessed and patients included in shared-decision
making at all stages.
• Anne McGrath FANZCAP (Anticoag., MedSafety) closes out the 2026 series by
exploring the complexities that arise as care increasingly occurs beyond the walls
of the hospital. Calling for medication information to be consistently documented,
regularly updated, and easy to access across care settings, Anne calls for health
services to provide clear guidance, training and governance to support clinicians
working across different systems and settings.
The 2026 World Patient Safety Day series is available here.
