Call to penalise those who fail to report medical errors

PENALISING those who fail to report medical errors would end the practice of ignoring or denying them, patient advocate Rebecca O’Malley has stressed.

The Tipperary mother-of-three, who was wrongly given the all clear for breast cancer, said there must be a robust system of mandatory reporting of medical errors and unsafe situations to an independent body and to any affected patient.

Ms O’Malley told members of the Irish Healthcare Risk Management Association at their annual conference in Dublin yesterday that attaching a penalty to the failure to report would bring about a much needed culture change.