Aotearoa Patient Safety Day 2026 Te Rā Haumaru Tūroro o Aotearoa
Aotearoa Patient Safety Day is a commitment to consumers and healthcare workers that our health services strive to provide the best and safest care possible, every time. This year we will be marking the day on Tuesday, 17 November.
The focus for 2026 is asthma and respiratory diseases.
We are guided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) annual campaign. This year it is ‘Safe care for noncommunicable diseases’. Under the slogan ‘Safe care for life!’, the campaign highlights the importance of reducing harm across the continuum of noncommunicable disease (NCD) care and in preserving life and the quality of people’s lives.
A working group of key stakeholders has been established for Aotearoa Patient Safety Day with a focus on asthma and respiratory disease.
This was chosen as it is the third main cause of mortality. It affects 1 million people a year, one third of whom are children and is the cause of 1 in 11 hospital stays. Hospitalisation is 2.4 times higher for Pacific peoples and 1.9 times higher for Māori; it is 2.2 times higher for the most deprived households compared to the least deprived.
There will be further updates on this page over the next few months including the release of resources.
