MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE PATIENT SAFETY 1.2 (a)(i) WRONG SITE SURGERY

UNDEFINED NOTIFIABLE INCIDENT

1.2(a) Dr. Gabriel Scally has said that the Patient Safety Bill (now the Patient Safety Act 2023) is really quite narrow in scope and there remains the need to provide Patients with the right to make a complaint about their clinical treatment.  Dr. Scally also told RTE that while the Minister could add other incidents where open disclosure should apply, at present the rights to open disclosure only arose in the 2023 Patient Safety Act when the Patient died.  

In the example given at the news item Medical Negligence Patient Safety 1.2(a) on the 10^th day of March 2025, that was an example of a Notifiable Incident involving surgery on a person who was admitted to hospital for amputation of their infected leg but the amputation that took place was in fact the Patient’s healthy leg.  

If as a result of this surgery the Patient died then that would be a notifiable incident.    

There appears no good reason as to why this incident should not be a Notifiable Incident and the Minister has an opportunity under Section 8 to introduce regulations to cover such an incident and there does not appear to any proposals to do so at present. 

For more detailed insights into how the Patient Safety Act 2023 impacts you and how Whelan Law can support you, please visit our Patient Safety Rights Legal Advice https://www.whelanlaw.ie/news/medical-negligence-and-patient-safety/