Hiqa chief criticises time required to probe incidents

The time taken to investigate patient safety incidents is unacceptable, the head of the State’s health services watchdog said yesterday.

Phelim Quinn, the chief executive of the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), said that the process used, in some instances, to investigate patient safety incidents is “ineffective and non-transparent”.

He was speaking in Dublin yesterday at the All-Ireland Midwifery Conference hosted by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and the Royal College of Midwives.