A BILL TO provide more transparency in healthcare that has been long sought by campaigners, including the 221+ CervicalCheck patient support group, has passed through its final stages of the Oireachtas today.

The Patient Safety Bill will require healthcare providers to disclose certain serious safety incidents to the patient and/or their families, as well as make it mandatory for people to be informed that they have a right to a review of screening results.

The bill passed through the Dáil in February and has now completed its process through both Houses of the Oireachtas and will come into effect once it is signed into law by President Michael D Higgins.

The 221+ group, which has advocated for people impacted by the CervicalCheck screening scandal, had pushed for the legislation – including pivotal amendments – to help people to have easier access to their medical information. 

The bill creates a list of specific ‘notifiable incidents’ which, if a health service provider becomes aware of one occurring, they will be obliged to notify the incident to the Health Information and Quality Authority, the Chief Inspector of Social Services or the Mental Health Commission within 7 days of the incident.

Failing to comply with the law will make the health service provider liable to be charged with an offence, with a potential fine of up to €5,000. 

The bill also creates a mandatory requirement for people to be informed that they have a right to a review of their cancer screening results, known as a ‘Part 5 review’. A patient-requested review conducted by CervicalCheck, BreastCheck or Bowel Screen will be subject to mandatory open disclosure rules.

Additionally, it extends Hiqa’s remit to include private hospitals and gives the Chief Inspector of Social Services discretionary power to conduct a review of serious patient safety incidents in nursing homes. 

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly described the introduction of mandatory open disclosure of notifiable incidents as a “watershed moment” for patient safety.

“It will contribute to embedding a culture where clinicians, and the health service as a whole, engage openly, transparently and compassionately with patients and their families when things go wrong with the care they receive,” Donnelly said.

“This new legislation seeks to support a just culture in our health services, which is focused on openness, learning and improvement rather than blame.”

The minister said that in many situations where patients are harmed, “the error or mistake occurred because systems were not in place to support the healthcare professional or team in identifying and avoiding that error”.

“Creating a culture of open disclosure and learning from the things that go wrong is the bedrock of making services safer,” he said.

“While the focus of this Bill is much wider than cancer screening services, it is absolutely correct that the Bill has been informed by CervicalCheck and from the women and men who stood up and made their voices heard.

“The inclusion of the new ‘Part 5 review’ will enshrine in law for the first time, the right of patients to mandatory open disclosure of all information regarding a patient-requested review of their cancer screening.”