Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 July 2023
669. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Health how many legal actions have been lodged against the State in regard to nursing homes and hospitals; and the breakdown of what type of cases are being taken. [33490/23]
View answerThe State Claims Agency (SCA) has a statutory remit to manage personal injury claims on behalf of Delegated State Authorities including the Health Service Executive. Accordingly, the SCA has provided me with the information set out below in response to the Deputy's question. I have been informed by the SCA that this information has been extracted from the National Incident Management System (NIMS) according to the criteria and definitions set out below.
Criteria:
• The explicit reference to ”hospitals” is interpreted as all claims notified to the SCA against the HSE which relate to incidents occurring in an acute hospital setting.
• The explicit reference to “nursing homes” is interpreted as all claims notified to the SCA against the HSE which relate to incidents occurring within a nursing home (HSE owned and privately owned).
• Contained in the figures provided are 161 notifications of events which are not within the SCA’s statutory remit.
Table 1 - Acute Hospitals claims received historically
|
Incident/Hazard Category |
Total |
|
Clinical Care |
10,563 |
|
Exposure to Physical Hazards |
2,618 |
|
Exposure to Psychological hazards |
2,014 |
|
Exposure to Biological Hazards |
790 |
|
Exposure to Behavioural Hazards |
515 |
|
Property Damage/Loss (non crash/collision) |
468 |
|
Crash/Collision |
183 |
|
Exposure to Chemical Hazards |
55 |
|
Other* |
46 |
|
Total |
17,252 |
Table 2 - Nursing Homes claims received historically
|
Incident/Hazard Category |
Total |
|
Exposure to Psychological hazards |
47 |
|
Exposure to Physical Hazards |
10 |
|
Exposure to Biological Hazards |
5 |
|
Exposure to Behavioural Hazards |
4 |
|
Other* |
7 |
|
Total |
73 |
*Other category includes legacy data, null and other categories with a very small number of claims.
Please note that the report includes all the acute hospital and nursing home claims notified to the SCA, against the HSE, since the inception of the State Indemnity schemes.The General Indemnity Scheme was established in 2000 and the Clinical Indemnity Scheme was established in 2002.
Definitions
National Incident Management System (NIMS) : Incidents (which include claims) are reported using the “National Incident Management System”, hosted by the State Claims Agency (SCA). An incident can be a harmful Incident (Adverse Event), no harm incident, near miss, dangerous occurrence (reportable circumstance) or complaint.
Claim : A claim refers to notification of intention to seek compensation for personal injury and/or property damage where it is alleged the State was negligent. The application may be in the form of a letter of claim, an InjuriesBoard.ie application, or a written/oral request.
Claim Received Date : Official date that the claim was created on NIMS. If a record is first logged to the system as a claim, the "Claim Create Date" and "Create Date" will be the same, however, if a record was once an incident and subsequently transitioned into a claim, the "Claim Create Date" will differ from the "Create Date", with the "Create Date" representing the date the incident was first recorded, and the "Claim Create Date" representing the date the record transitioned to a Claim.
