Webinar: Safe Care for Life - World Patient Safety Day

September 2026 Special Interest Group News Working Party News

September, 2026

To mark World Patient Safety Day 2026, WONCA's Working Party on Quality and Safety and Special Interest Group on Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) invite you to a global webinar on safe care for people living with NCDs.

This year's WHO campaign theme, "Safe Care for Life!", focuses on the heightened risk of harm faced by people living with noncommunicable diseases, whose long-term, complex care spans many providers, settings and years. Drawing on WONCA's family medicine perspective, this webinar brings together patients, family doctors and health system leaders from across WONCA's regions to explore how safety is built and protected throughout the NCD journey, from prevention and early diagnosis to daily management, care transitions and self-management support.

Date: Monday, 14 September 2026
Time: 15:00 UTC

Programme and speakers

Introduction and welcome – Prof Viviana Martínez-Bianchi, WONCA President (United States) and A/Prof Klaus B. von Pressentin, Chair, WONCA Working Party on Quality and Safety (South Africa)
Patients, families and communities as partners in safety – Dr Ratna Devi, International Alliance of Patients' Organizations (India)
Recognising patient safety risks across the NCD journey – Dr Mercy Wanjala, Kenya Association of Family Physicians (Kenya)
Equipping primary health care workers and teams to deliver safer care for NCDs – Dr Andrée Rochfort, Irish College of GPs (Ireland)
Building safer systems and supportive environments for people living with NCDs – Dr Mona Osman, Chair, WONCA Special Interest Group on NCDs (Lebanon)
The NCD safety ecosystem – Prof Maria Pilar Astier Peña, WONCA President-elect (Spain)
Presentation of a WONCA NCD Fellowship project – Dr Nilka Priscilla Arosemena Sandoval, WONCA Young Family Doctors NCD Fellowship (Panama)
Moderator: Dr Kim Yu, WONCA–WHO Liaison (USA)