Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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210. To ask the Minister for Health the legislation on the disclosure of medical mistakes in the Health Service Executive and his plans to update it or to publish new legislation. [16454/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The safety of service users is of paramount importance and steps need to be taken to anticipate and avoid things going wrong and to reduce the impact if they do. All employees including medical staff are required to disclose and report incidents in line with the HSE's Safety Incident Management Policy. Creating a culture of open disclosure and learning from the things that go wrong is the bedrock of making systems safer. Open Disclosure is defined as 'an open consistent approach to communicating with patients and their families when things go wrong in healthcare. This includes expressing regret for what has happened, keeping the patient informed, providing feedback on investigations and the steps taken to prevent a recurrence of the adverse event'.

Last November the Government gave its approval to the drafting of provisions to support open disclosure of patient safety incidents. This will be included in the Department of Justice and Equality’s Civil Liability (Amendment) Bill which is well advanced. The legislation is part of a broader package of reforms aimed at improving the experience of those who are affected by adverse events.

This legislation builds on the joint development by the HSE and State Claims Agency of the National Policy on Open Disclosure (2013). The HSE is progressing the implementation of the Policy across all health and social care services. We all know that when error or harm is experienced by a patient, the trust and confidence of that patient and their family are compromised. That is why honest, open disclosure and communication, which demonstrate empathy and sensitivity, are so essential. The intent of this legislation is to provide certain legal protections for healthcare staff for open disclosure. This will give further support to those staff in their communications with patients and family members if an adverse event occurs. The Ethical Code of Practice set out by the Medical Council also makes clear the responsibilities of doctors in relation to open disclosure.