‘First do no harm’ is a central premise of medicine believed to originate from Hippocrates and is the opening statement in many articles relating to patient safety. It focuses the great challenge for current and future practitioners to minimize risk to our patients. Over the last two decades, it has been demonstrated that we do harm to our patients on a regular basis. Evidence has emerged from across the world, which demonstrates the level of harm that patients' experience during their journeys through health care systems. Between 10 and 20% of all health care encounters result in harm to patients. A worldwide movement has emerged in response to these figures, which aims to improve safety and includes all involved in health care across primary and secondary care.
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