Doctors will legally have to admit mistakes
“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.
“That does happen in the health service and I am appalled by it,” he said.
He had become aware of a number of cases — some of them were in the news, where doctors had effectively abandoned their patients instead of explaining what had happened.
Mr Varadkar said fewer people would take legal action if doctors and other healthcare professionals adhered to the duty of candour and respected the policy of open disclosure.
He now intended to legislate to make open disclosure and a duty of candour a legal requirement in the Health Information Bill.
Last month members of the Medical Injuries Alliance called for a legal duty of candour when they appeared before the committee.
The MIA, which represents people injured through medical negligence, misconduct and preventable error, had claimed that a “defend and deny” culture was widespread.
MIA chairman Michael Boylan said the medical profession and their insurers saw the problem as a financial cost rather than a tragic human cost.
Earlier yesterday the minister told the committee the health service “clearly” did not have sufficient funds to address all areas of concern immediately.
However, this year’s HSE service plan did allow a “welcome start” towards stabilising and improving health service funding.
Mr Varadkar said there was a strong case for increased funding on health, but health funding without reform would not resolve the difficulties the health services faced.
“Our experience during the boom Celtic Tiger years when considerably increased year-on-year funding was spent on health without a satisfactory return was a stark testimony to that.”
On the issue of hospital overcrowding, Mr Varadkar, said that at 8am yesterday there were 372 patients on trolleys, either in emergency departments or in wards —183 had been on trolleys for more than nine hours. It was a “significant improvement” on the situation earlier this week.
He said the trolley situation varied from hospital to hospital. There were no patients on trolleys in Wexford General Hospital and Kerry General Hospital (Tralee) and 37 on trolleys in Tallaght Hospital (Dublin), where 12 were on trolleys for more than nine hours.
In some hospitals more than half of patients were admitted through the hospital’s emergency departments when it should be about a quarter.
Flu and the winter vomiting bug were adding to numbers and causing beds to be closed for infection control reasons.
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