Ahead of World Patient Safety Day, it's worth reflecting that the term 'patient safety' is of recent origin. There has been a big increase in the use of 'patient safety' in English since around 1999/2000, following reports by the Institute of Medicine and UK Department of Health.

Words have meaning. Just because harm has been recognised in medicine for thousands of years, doesn't mean there has been a corresponding focus on 'safety'.

Before 'patient safety' was widely used, other terms were used, such as complications, accidents, mistakes, mishaps and untoward incidents. The use of the word 'safety' suggests something new: the idea that medical harm is no longer tolerated, and should be proactively managed.

There were sporadic references to 'patient safety' before this time in the press, and what I would argue to be an 'informal' of common-sense understanding of the term. For example, UK ministers in the 1970s argued that medical staff going on strike would harm 'patient safety'.

But this is a far cry from the widespread use of the term today, and a major question in this project is to ask how and why this shift to 'safety' occurred, and the major actors involved.