Civil Liability (Amendment) Act 2017

Failure to contact patient for purpose of open disclosure of patient safety incident

20. (1) Where—

(a) pursuant to section 16 (1), a health services provider is unable to contact a patient for the purpose of arranging an open disclosure meeting on the basis of the contact information provided to it by the patient, and

(b) the open disclosure of the patient safety incident is to be made to the patient in accordance with section 12 (a),

the health services provider concerned shall take all steps reasonably open to the provider to establish contact with the patient for the purpose of arranging the open disclosure meeting.

(2) Where—

(a) pursuant to section 16 (1), a health services provider is unable to contact a relevant person for the purpose of arranging an open disclosure meeting on the basis of the contact information provided to it by the patient or relevant person, and

(b) the open disclosure of the patient safety incident is to be made to the relevant person in accordance with subparagraph (i), (ii) or (iii) of paragraph (b) of section 12 ,

the health services provider concerned shall take all steps reasonably open to the provider to establish contact with the relevant person for the purpose of arranging the open disclosure meeting.

(3) Where—

(a) pursuant to section 16 (1), a health services provider is unable to contact a patient and relevant person for the purpose of arranging an open disclosure meeting on the basis of the contact information provided to it by the patient or relevant person, and

(b) the open disclosure of the patient safety incident is to be made to both the patient and the relevant person in accordance with subparagraph (i) or (ii) of paragraph (c) of section 12 ,

the health services provider concerned shall take all steps reasonably open to the provider to establish contact with the patient and relevant person for the purpose of arranging the open disclosure meeting.

(4) A health services provider shall—

(a) set out, in a statement in writing, in the prescribed form, the steps taken by it to establish contact with a patient, relevant person or, as the case may be both of them,

(b) sign the statement referred to in paragraph (a) and shall specify the date of signing, and

(c) keep, in records referred to in section 21 , the statement referred to in paragraph (a), which has been signed in accordance with paragraph (b).

(5) In this section “contact information” means information provided to a health services provider by the patient or a relevant person (or both of them) for the purpose of permitting the provider to contact the patient or relevant person (or both of them) as it may require having regard to the health service being provided to the patient when the patient is no longer in the care of the provider or has left the premises on which the health service concerned is provided to that patient.