Starting national programs in West-Africa is feasible, useful and necessary, with currently available resources. That implies a political willingness of the countries and the support of development partners. These programs should firstly be based on basic processes of IPC, which are cross-cutting, involve all categories of healthcare workers, and don’t need specialized knowledge and skill. Starting from this entry point, the programs will be strengthened and adapted to local realities, in order to become increasingly really national programs for Patient Safety, with the human resources development.
All this will be achieved through a Senegalese project which aims at implementation of national patient safety programs in francophone West-Africa, starting with IPC activities.