Report highlights potential harm to patients

MORE THAN 83,000 hospital incidents were recorded last year which could have led to patients being harmed, according to a report published yesterday.

Incidents including patient falls, violence and the wrongful administration of medications were all highlighted in the report jointly published by the Health Service Executive and the State Claims Agency.

The incidents ranged in severity from near-misses to fatalities, but neither the executive nor the agency were in a position to provide a breakdown of the outcome of the 83,483 incidents yesterday.

“Mortality data is going to be published in the future and we think it is a good idea to publish it, but the data we have today does not record the outcomes of the incidents,” Dr Philip Crowley, the executive’s national director of quality and patient safety, said.

The absence of such a breakdown was “a deficiency”, he said, adding the executive was “working to improve the quality of the data”.

Ciarán Breen of the agency said it had budgeted €80 million for payouts due to litigation arising out of the incidents this year. He said about 450 claims of negligence were expected to be made on behalf of patients.

He said obstetrics continued to represent a “disproportionately high amount” of the payouts. While about 25 per cent of the negligence claims managed by the agency each year cover obstetrics, the sector makes up “roughly in the order of 60 per cent of the actual payments”, he added.

Falls were by far the most common incidents recorded, at 26,2898, while violence against patients, typically in residential units in community settings, were also high, with 9,690 incidents reported. The third most common incident reported was for medication errors – 6,882 in 2010.

Dr Crowley said the report was being published “as part of ongoing efforts to address patient safety issues in an open and transparent way”, and said he was encouraged by the high level of reporting and the fact the Irish figures mirrored international trends.

He said there would “always be risks in healthcare”, and that about one in 10 hospital patients would experience “some harm during their treatment”. There was a “need to face up to this as a healthcare system and as healthcare professionals”, he continued.

“It is only by engaging in mature debate about this that we can truly learn from the evidence in front of us and develop our healthcare service along a patient safety agenda,” he added.