The Patient Safety (Notifiable Incidents and Open Disclosure) Act 2023 came into effect on 26 September 2024. This Act, introduces, for the first time in Irish law, mandatory open disclosure by health services providers of certain notifiable incidents which occurred during the provision of a health service.
Open disclosure is defined as an open, honest, compassionate and timely approach to communicating with patients and, where appropriate their relevant person, following patient safety incidents. The Act introduces a legal requirement to disclose a list of specific incidents called notifiable incidents.
Full particulars of the notifiable incidents are detailed within the Act. A very brief
summary of the incidents are:
Surgery performed on the wrong patient resulting in unintended and unanticipated death.
Surgery performed on the wrong site resulting in unintended and unanticipated death.
Wrong surgical procedure performed on a patient resulting in an unintended and unanticipated death.
Unintended retention of a foreign object in a patient after surgery resulting in
an unanticipated death.
Any unintended and unanticipated death occurring in an otherwise healthy patient undergoing elective surgery where the death is directly related to a surgical operation or anaesthesia.
Any unintended and unanticipated death that is directly related to any medical treatment and the death did not arise from the illness of the patient or an underlying condition of the patient.
Patient death due to transfusion of ABO incompatible blood or blood components.
Patient death associated with a medication error.
An unanticipated death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of the pregnancy related to, or aggravated by, the management of the pregnancy.
An unanticipated stillborn child or perinatal death
An unintended death where the cause is believed to be the suicide of a patient while being cared for in a health service setting
A baby who—
(a) is referred for, therapeutic hypothermia, or
(b) has been considered for, but did not undergo therapeutic hypothermia as, in the clinical judgment of the health practitioner, such therapy was contraindicated due to the severity of the presenting condition.