The Patient Safety (Notifiable Incidents and Open Disclosure) Act 2023 was signed into law in May 2023 and comes into effect from 26 September 2024.
The Act seeks to strengthen openness and transparency throughout the Irish health care system. It applies to public and private health services and must be followed by all staff. A key focus of the Act is on open disclosure.
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. The notifiable incidents are described in the Act.
The Act requires health services providers to be open and transparent with patients, their families, or both depending on the patient's wishes. For most of the notifiable incidents the patient has sadly died.
The Act outlines a process for open disclosure, ensuring that patients, their families, or both, receive truthful and timely information in any healthcare setting when a notifiable incident happens. The Act also requires mandatory notification of the notifiable incidents to the appropriate regulatory body.
For more information on the Act visit:
https://www2.healthservice.hse.ie/organisation/qps-incident-management/open-disclosure/patient-safet...