The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and the Mental Health Commission have today launched a six-week public consultation on new Draft National Standards for Conduct of Reviews of Patient Safety Incidents.

The draft standards are the first of their kind to be developed through a collaborative project between HIQA and the Mental Health Commission and set out how patient safety incidents are reviewed across acute health and mental health services.

Standards on the conduct of reviews of patient safety incidents were commissioned by the Department of Health and are underpinned by findings from the Chief Medical Officer’s 2014 Report on Perinatal Deaths in HSE Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise.

Commenting on the Draft National Standards Rosemary Smyth, Director Standards and Quality Assurance/ Director Training and Development at the Mental Health Commission said, “Working collaboratively with HIQA on this project has, we believe, resulted in a very strong draft set of standards that are comprehensive in terms of meeting requirements. The cornerstone of the draft standards is a culture of patient safety which promotes trust, openness, empathy and respect for service users, families and staff. This runs throughout the five broad themes of Governance and Accountability; A Person-Centred Approach to reviewing patient safety; Workforce and providing resources; Reviews of Patient Safety Incidents and finally Sharing the Learning for Improvement going forward. We now very much look forward to the feedback which will arise during this public consultation period.”

Marie Kehoe O’Sullivan, Director of Standards and Quality Improvement at HIQA, said: “It is important that incidents are reviewed in a transparent, objective and standardised way and that learning is shared between services to stop preventable incidents from reoccurring. These draft standards support services to use all available information following an incident to determine the appropriate review type and method, as well as ensuring that the staff managing and undertaking reviews have the time and resources they need to carry out their functions effectively and efficiently. They will play an important role in ensuring that patient incident reviews are conducted in a transparent way which enhances the future quality and safety of patient care.”

The public consultation invites feedback from all stakeholders. The draft national standards are available for public consultation for a six-week period until 5pm on Friday 4 November 2016.

The draft standards are available in full on both websites at these links:

• HIQA
• MHC

Ends.

Further Information: 

Suzanne O’Brien, Communications Manager, HIQA

01 814 7488 / 087 614 1216 sobrien@hiqa.ie

Aoibheann O’Sullivan, Murray, Mental Health Commission

01 4980346 / 087 629 1453  aosullivan@murrayconsultants.ie

Notes to the Editor: 

• The draft standards were informed by a Standards Advisory Group made up of a diverse range of interested and informed parties, including service users, healthcare (including mental health) professionals, and representatives from the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive (HSE), the State Claims Agency, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Private Hospitals Association of Ireland.
• HIQA and the Mental Health Commission also participated in and undertook a series of focus groups with service users, staff and management involved in patient safety incidents.