New Zealand Joins Global Call To Action On Patient Safety

Today, leading health agencies, professional associations, consumer organisations, advocacy groups, and individuals across Aotearoa New Zealand have united to endorse the Mandaluyong Declaration on Patient Safety, adopted at the 7th Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety in April 2025.

This global declaration, already embraced by governments worldwide, places patient safety at the heart of resilient, people-centered, and equitable health systems. For New Zealand, it represents not just an international commitment, but a local imperative: to ensure that every person, whānau, and community receives care that is safe, equitable, and shaped by their voices and lived experiences.

New Zealand’s adoption of the Declaration on 8 July 2025 signals an important step, but action must follow words. The undersigned organisations are calling on the Government to show clear leadership by embedding patient safety and equity in every reform, policy, and service, and by ensuring accountability, investment, and cultural change across the health system.

The organisations who are calling for visible actions to underpin the Declaration are unanimous in their stand that patient safety sits at the heart of an equitable, inclusive, people-centred, resilient health system.

Advancing patient safety is inseparable from advancing equity. For New Zealand, this means upholding Te Tiriti o Waitangi and ensuring that all communities, Māori, Pacific peoples, and other vulnerable populations, experience care that is safe, fair, and free from systemic barriers.

The Mandaluyong Declaration highlights the urgent need for stronger governance, workforce capability, disaster preparedness, and genuine partnership with patients and communities. It is a reminder that safety is not an aspiration, it is a fundamental right.

This joint call places New Zealand alongside global leaders in demanding accountability for avoidable harm and urging sustained action to strengthen trust, safety, and equity at every level of the health system.

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