The European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (EPUAP) and EWMA are collaborating on a joint engagement in the PU prevention and patient safety agendas at the European level targeting EU institutions including the European Parliament as well as other key stakeholders.

Patient safety has for some years been high on the European Commission health care agenda. At the EU level as well as at national levels of many European nations, considerable investments have been made by health care authorities to establish organisations and programmes addressing the patient safety agenda.
Looking at the patient safety agenda from a wound care perspective, the topic of Pressure Ulcer (PU) prevention has always been central due to the fact that most PU’s are preventable if the patient is managed correctly by health care staff.
Consequently both EPUAP and EWMA have separately been advocating for the prevention of PU’s as a major health care and patient safety issue. Whereas EPUAP, in particular, has strongly supported the annual STOP Pressure Ulcer campaign, EWMA has in collaboration with the Eucomed Advanced Wound Care Sector group earlier engaged in raising attention in the European Parliament and the European Commission in connection with the EU Joint Action on Patient Safety and Quality of Care (PaSQ) programme.

Publications by the Joint EPUAP-EWMA project:

Seven articles by the joint EPUAP-EWMA initiative have now been published. The articles are available for download:

• Disability in Europe: The invisible burden of pressure ulcers
• Pressure ulcer monitoring: a process of evidence-based practice, data sharing and joint efforts
• The role of pressure ulcer prevention in the fight against antimicrobial resistance
• EWMA & EPUAP added-value to OECD efforts
• Diabetic Control & Pressure Ulcers: fighting fatal complications andimproving quality of life
• Patient safety across Europe: the perspective of pressure ulcers.
• The time to invest in patient safety and pressure ulcer prevention is now!

A PU patient case study video

This short video presents the interview with the long-term chairbound patient Mr Vašíček from the Czech Republic who is sharing his experience with the pressure ulcers.  We would like to thank Mr Vašíček for his willingness to share the experiences and views on the care of patients at risk of pressure ulcer development.