The Patient Safety Bill, which aims to bring more transparency in the healthcare sector, has been signed into law. President Michael D. Higgins signed the bill this (03/05/2023) afternoon. The bill would require health care providers to disclose certain serious safety incidents to patients or their family members.
If a health service provider becomes aware of a "notifiable incident", they are obliged to report the incident to the Health Information and Quality Authority, the Chief Inspector of Social Services or the Mental Health Commission within days of the incident.
The bill describes "notifiable events" as "those of a very serious nature (and all associated with death) falling within the category of preventable events". Failure to comply with the law will render the healthcare provider liable to prosecution and a fine of up to €5,000.
https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/bills/bill/2019/100/
The Bill is critical to embedding a culture in which clinicians, the health service as a whole engage openly, transparently and compassionately with patients and their families.
Speaking last week, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly was vocal about the bill:
“This bill is because in many situations where patient harm has occurred, an error or mistake has been made, systems are not in place to support the healthcare professional or team to identify and avoid that error.
"Creating a culture of open disclosure and learning from mistakes is a cornerstone of making services safer. 'Part 5 Review' The Bill also creates mandatory requirements to inform people that they have a right to a review of their cancer screening results.
The new 'Part 5 review' will be included in the Act for the first time, and the Bill highlights patients' right to mandatory open disclosure of all information about a patient-requested review of their cancer screening.
Donnelly said the bill promotes a culture of fairness in health services by focusing on openness, learning and improvement rather than blame.