Doctors will legally have to admit mistakes

Doctors will be legally obliged to tell patients they made a clinical error, Health Minister Leo Varadkar told the Oireachtas Health Committee.

“When I was in medical school it was always drummed into us that you had a duty of candour and you should disclose where a mistake is made,” said Mr Varadkar.

“Failing to disclose openly and not adhering to a duty of candour to me is the equivalent of a hit-and-run. You’ve knocked somebody down; you don’t necessarily know whose fault it is but you drive off,” he said.