Stephen Donnelly
Ceist:301. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Health the percentage of serious reportable events in 2017 and to date in 2018 that were notified within 24 hours to a designated officer. [19807/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 8 May 2018
Ceisteanna (301, 302, 303, 304)
Stephen Donnelly
Ceist:302. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Health the percentage of mandatory investigations in 2017 and to date in 2018 that commenced within 48 hours of the events occurring. [19808/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraStephen Donnelly
Ceist:303. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Health the percentage of mandatory investigations commenced in 2017 that were completed within four months of notification of the events occurring. [19809/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraStephen Donnelly
Ceist:304. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Health the percentage of reportable events in 2017 and to date in 2018 that have been reported within 30 days of occurrence to the designated officer. [19810/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraFreagraí scríofa
I propose to take Questions Nos. 301 to 304, inclusive, together.
As these are service matters the questions have been referred to the HSE for attention and direct reply to the Deputy.
The Department of Health takes the management of patient safety very seriously. Recent development include:
- In November 2015, the Government approved a major programme of patient safety reforms which included the establishment of a National Patient Safety Office (NPSO) in the Department of Health. The NPSO was established in December 2016 to oversee a programme of patient safety measures.
- The programme of patient safety centres on initiatives such as the establishment of a national patient advocacy service, the introduction of a patient safety surveillance system, the measurement of patient experience and extending the clinical effectiveness agenda.
- The NPSO is also progressing a programme of legislation in relation to the provision of open disclosure of patient safety incidents, the Patient Safety Bill, which will provide for the mandatory reporting of serious reportable events, and a Patient Safety Licensing Bill, which will introduce a regulatory regime for all hospitals as well as certain designated high risk activities.
In addition, on 25 October 2017, I launched the National Standards on the Conduct of Reviews of Patient Safety Incidents. These standards, developed jointly by HIQA and the Mental Health Commission, set out a new approach to the way health providers respond to, review and investigate incidents in order to determine as quickly as possible what may have transpired, and why, to ensure that they can immediately implement any improvements necessary to prevent a re-occurrence.
Finally, the Health Service Executive (HSE) finalised the review of its safety incident management Policy and launched its new Incident Management Frameworks in January which will support implementation.