(National gathering to focus on safer care for people with long-term illnesses)
Nagpur, 9 September 2026: The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Nagpur, will host the National Conference on Patient Safety 2026 on 11 and 12 September 2026 at the AIIMS Nagpur Auditorium. The Conference is being organized in collaboration with the National Patient Safety Secretariat (NPSS), Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India.
Hon’ble Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari, will grace the Conference on 12 September 2026 as the Chief Guest. His presence will add significance to this national initiative aimed at strengthening patient safety and quality of healthcare across the country.
Organized under the leadership of Prof. (Dr.) Prashant P. Joshi, Executive Director, AIIMS Nagpur, the Conference will bring together Directors of various AIIMS and Institutes of National Importance (INIs), healthcare leaders, clinicians, nursing professionals, hospital administrators, patient safety nodal officers, researchers, and delegates from across India to deliberate on practical and sustainable measures to make healthcare safer.
AIIMS Nagpur has placed quality of care and patient safety at the core of its healthcare delivery systems. The Institute has achieved full NABH accreditation, becoming the first public hospital in Maharashtra to achieve this distinction, with a wide scope of accredited services including tertiary care, critical care and transplant services. This achievement reflects the Institute’s commitment to quality healthcare through standardized processes, evidence-based practices and robust patient safety systems.
The Conference is centred on the theme “Safe Care for Non-Communicable Diseases”, with the slogan “Safe Care for Life!”. It is being organized in the lead-up to World Patient Safety Day, which is observed every year on 17 September, reinforcing the global and national commitment to making patient safety an integral part of healthcare delivery. India is witnessing a growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including hypertension, diabetes, heart attack, paralytic stroke, and cancers, largely driven by changing lifestyles. These are also commonly referred to as chronic diseases.
Patient safety refers to the prevention of avoidable harm to patients during healthcare. It includes ensuring safe medication practices, preventing healthcare-associated infections, ensuring safe surgical and diagnostic procedures, preventing falls, improving communication, and ensuring appropriate treatment and follow-up.
Patient safety can be strengthened through evidence-based clinical protocols, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), clinical audits, incident reporting and learning systems, infection prevention and control measures, medication safety practices, monitoring of quality indicators and continuous quality improvement. A strong patient safety culture also encourages healthcare professionals to identify risks, report incidents and learn from them so that similar events can be prevented in the future.
The two-day scientific programme will cover a wide spectrum of patient safety, including newborn and childcare, emergency services, surgical safety, medication safety, infection prevention, non-communicable diseases and safe healthcare facilities. Sessions will also examine hospital leadership, technology and artificial intelligence, research and innovation, clinical governance, and learning from patient safety incidents. Healthcare institutions from across the country will share experiences and best practices that can be adapted to strengthen routine patient care.
A key focus of the Conference will also be the engagement of patients and families as partners in safer healthcare through effective communication, better understanding of medicines and treatment instructions, opportunities to ask questions, and active participation in decisions regarding their care.
The initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, through the National Patient Safety Secretariat, to bring together patient safety stakeholders from across the country will go a long way in strengthening a culture of patient safety, quality improvement and learning within the Indian healthcare system.
Through this national platform, AIIMS Nagpur, NPSS and DGHS aim to promote exchange of best practices and encourage practical, evidence-based improvements in healthcare delivery so that every patient receives safe, respectful, reliable and well-coordinated care.
The recommendations emerging from the scientific sessions, plenary sessions, and deliberations of the Conference are expected to provide valuable inputs for strengthening patient safety practices across healthcare institutions and will go a long way in supporting the formulation and refinement of national policies and strategies for patient safety in India. These recommendations will also help strengthen patient safety across hospitals throughout the country.
