New legislation to provide for mandatory open disclosure

Hospitals will face penalties if staff do not notify patients of serious adverse incidents under proposed new legislation.

Due to be brought to Cabinet by the Minister for Health Simon Harris in early December, it will provide for mandatory open disclosure of patient safety issues. It is understood that the new Bill would mean that where a hospital or health service provider was satisfied that a notifiable patient safety incident had occurred, information in its possession on the issue should be disclosed. A doctor or practitioner would be obliged to inform the patient and hospital of the incident.

Under the proposals, failure to comply with this requirement on disclosure would mean the health service provider would be penalised. The nature or extent of the proposed penalties is unknown.

The department is preparing a list of notifiable patient safety incidents for the mandatory open disclosure proposals.

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Source: The Irish Times, 25 November 2019