Patient safety may be governed by agency

HEALTH chiefs are examining the case for setting up a Patient Safety Agency in the wake of findings that hospital mishaps affect over 1,000 patients weekly.

The biggest single category of incident involves slips, trips and falls by patients but the findings also cover a wide range of mistakes by medical staff including misdiagnosis, accidents with equipment, incorrect use of drugs and failure to secure proper consent for procedures.

Some of the incidents are classified as “near misses” where a mistake — such as in the preparation of drugs or equipment — was detected before the patient was treated.