The Helsinki Declaration on Patient Safety in Anaesthesiology
The Helsinki Declaration on Patient Safety in Anaesthesiology emphasises the role of anaesthesiology and Intensive Care in promoting safe perioperative care for everyone.
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About the declaration
- What’s new?
- Development of the Helsinki Declaration
- Principles and aims of the Helsinki Declaration
- Signing of the Helsinki Declaration
- Full Declaration
Since 2010, The Helsinki Declaration has been successfully implemented, not only in Europe but across the world. It has impacted the culture of healthcare, and in particularly anaesthesiology, and continues to act as core guidance on the subject of Patient Safety.
To monitor the scale of its implementation, the ESAIC, along with The Lancaster Patient Safety Research Unit and the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay, has recently completed a 3-year research project, The Helsinki Declaration Follow Up Project. This project demonstrated the breadth of its uptake and its impact on healthcare and made further recommendations for improving implementation in the future. This project was enabled through support from our industry partners Phillips, Masimo, Nihon Kohden, and Fresenius Kabi. You can read the Executive Summary here.
In 2022, the Peer Review in Patient Safety for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (PRiPSAIC) project was born. This implementation project originally formed a popular part of the HD-FU project. It is designed to create networks of anaesthesiologists and critical care physicians and give them the tools and support they need to examine their own practice and those of their peers and provide intelligence to design solutions for the future. Find out more here.
Starting in June 2009, in response to a growing public and professional interest in Patient Safety the European Board of Anaesthesiology (EBA) of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) decided to produce a Declaration to include an agreement of what Anaesthesiology thought was needed to be done and provide some practical steps of how improvements in Patient Safety might be achieved and delivered for patients. The first draft was discussed at the EBA meeting in London in November 2009 with EBA representatives from all over Europe representing national societies and the ESAIC, known at that time as European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA). Following that and consultation with the ESAIC (former ESA) Board of Directors it was finalised and officially launched at the Euroanaesthesia Congress in Helsinki in June 2010. Signatories were all invited to pledge to join with the European Board of Anaesthesiology (EBA) in declaring the following aims for improving Patient Safety in Europe and it has been signed by the Presidents of the EBA, the ESAIC, the NASC and many other bodies including Patient representatives and industry.
The Declaration builds on earlier statements about safety and quality of care. It represents a shared European opinion of what currently is both worth doing and practical to improve patient safety in anaesthesiology in 2010. The Declaration recommends practical steps that all anaesthesiologists who are not already using them should include in their own practice. These are relatively straightforward and where they are currently being used have a track record of improving patient safety. All European anaesthesiology institutions are expected to support the World Health Organisation (WHO) ‘Safe Surgery safe Lifes’ initiative including the “Safe Surgery Checklist”, where anaesthesiology plays an important role and where other safety recommendations are made. The Declaration was endorsed by EBA and ESAIC. It was officially launched at the Euroanaesthesia congress in Helsinki in June 2010 and was subsequently signed by several representatives of European anaesthesiology and other stakeholders (WHO, World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA), European Patients Federation (EPF). The EBA and ESAIC have established a Patient Safety Task Force to take forward this work by providing the tools and protocols anaesthesiologists might need to help them fulfil their obligations under the Declaration.
Signing of the Helsinki Declaration during the opening ceremony of the Euroanaesthesia congress in Helsinki, Finland on Saturday 12 June 2010. Hugo Van Aken (NASC president), Jannicke Mellin-Olsen (EBA president), Paolo Pelosi (ESAIC president).
This declaration emphasises the key role of anaesthesiology and intensive care in promoting safe perioperative care.
We invite anyone involved in the healthcare industry to join us and sign this declaration.
