Patient Safety (Notifiable Incidents and Open Disclosure) Act 2023
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Interpretation | ||
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2. (1) In this Act— | ||
“Act of 1985” means the Dentists Act 1985 ; | ||
“Act of 2000” means the National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2000 ; | ||
“Act of 2005” means the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 ; | ||
“Act of 2007” means the Health Act 2007 ; | ||
“Act of 2011” means the Nurses and Midwives Act 2011 ; | ||
“Act of 2014” means the Freedom of Information Act 2014 ; | ||
“Act of 2017” means the Civil Liability (Amendment) Act 2017 ; | ||
“additional notifiable information” shall be construed in accordance with section 21 ; | ||
“additional notifiable information meeting” shall be construed in accordance with section 21 ; | ||
“additional Part 5 review information” shall be construed in accordance with section 52 ; | ||
“additional Part 5 review information meeting” shall be construed in accordance with section 52 ; | ||
“agency contract” has the meaning assigned to it by section 7 of the Act of 2017; | ||
“agency health practitioner” has the meaning assigned to it by section 7 of the Act of 2017; | ||
“agency worker” has the meaning assigned to it by section 7 of the Act of 2017; | ||
“apology”, in relation to an open disclosure of a notifiable incident, means an expression of sympathy or regret; | ||
“Authority” means the Health Information and Quality Authority; | ||
“cancer screening service” means— | ||
(a) the service known as the national breast screening programme carried out by the National Cancer Screening Board and, since the dissolution of the Board on 1 April 2010, provided by the Executive, | ||
(b) CervicalCheck, and | ||
(c) the service known as the national colon cancer screening programme provided by the Executive, | ||
and a reference in this Act to a cancer screening service includes any or all of the services specified in paragraph (a), (b) or (c); | ||
“CervicalCheck” has the meaning assigned to it by the CervicalCheck Tribunal Act 2019 ; | ||
“Commission” has the meaning assigned to it by the Mental Health Act 2001 ; | ||
“designated person” means— | ||
(a) in the case of a notifiable incident, the person designated under section 16 , or | ||
(b) in the case of a Part 5 review, the person designated under section 47 ; | ||
“employee”, in relation to a health services provider has the meaning assigned to it by section 7 of the Act of 2017; | ||
“employment agency” has the meaning assigned to it by section 7 of the Act of 2017; | ||
“enactment” has the same meaning it has in the Interpretation Act 2005 ; | ||
“Executive” means the Health Service Executive; | ||
“fixed-term employee” has the same meaning it has in section 7 of the Act of 2017; | ||
“health practitioner” means— | ||
(a) a registered medical practitioner within the meaning of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 or a medical practitioner practising medicine pursuant to section 50 of that Act, | ||
(b) a registered dentist within the meaning of the Act of 1985, | ||
(c) a registered pharmacist, or registered pharmaceutical assistant, within the meaning of the Pharmacy Act 2007 , | ||
(d) a registered nurse, or registered midwife, within the meaning of the Act of 2011, | ||
(e) a registrant within the meaning of section 3 of the Act of 2005, or | ||
(f) a person whose name is entered in the register referred to in Article 4(s) of the Order of 2000; | ||
“health service” means the provision, by or under the direction of a health services provider, of clinical care or any ancillary service to a patient for— | ||
(a) the screening (other than screening carried out by a cancer screening service), preservation or improvement of the health of the patient, | ||
(b) the prevention, diagnosis, treatment or care of an illness, injury or health condition of the patient, | ||
(c) the performance or surgery, or a surgical intervention, in respect of aesthetic purposes, or other non-medical purposes, that involves instruments or equipment being inserted into the body of the patient, or | ||
(d) without prejudice to paragraph (a), a cancer screening service; | ||
“health services provider” shall be construed in accordance with section 3 ; | ||
“making an open disclosure of a notifiable incident” shall be construed in accordance with section 9 ; | ||
“making an open disclosure of a Part 5 review” shall be construed in accordance with section 40 ; | ||
“Minister” means the Minister for Health; | ||
“notifiable incident” means an incident specified in— | ||
(a) Schedule 1 , or | ||
(b) regulations made under section 8 ; | ||
“notifiable incident disclosure meeting” shall be construed in accordance with section 18 (1); | ||
“open disclosure of a notifiable incident” shall be construed in accordance with section 9 and references to the open disclosure of a notifiable incident, or open disclosure in relation to a notifiable incident shall be construed accordingly; | ||
“open disclosure of Part 5 review” shall be construed in accordance with section 40 and references to the open disclosure of Part 5 review, or open disclosure in relation to a Part 5 review shall be construed accordingly; | ||
“other than in person”— | ||
(a) in relation to a notifiable incident disclosure meeting, an additional information disclosure meeting or a clarification given under section 23 , and | ||
(b) in relation to a Part 5 disclosure meeting, an additional information disclosure meeting or a clarification given under section 54 , | ||
means holding such meeting or such clarification by means of the telephone or the internet (or other similar method of communication); | ||
“Order of 2000” means the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (Establishment) Order 2000 ( S.I. No. 109 of 2000 ) amended by the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (Establishment) Order 2000 (Amendment) Order 2004 ( S.I. No. 575 of 2004 ); | ||
“ Part 5 review” means a review conducted in accordance with section 35 and includes— | ||
(a) a request for a Part 5 review, | ||
(b) the process undertaken by the health services provider to carry out the review, and | ||
(c) the findings of the review; | ||
“ Part 5 review disclosure meeting” shall be construed in accordance with section 49 (1); | ||
“patient”, in relation to a health services provider, means a person to whom a health service is, or has been, provided; | ||
“partnership”, in relation to the provision of a health service, means 2 or more health practitioners who provide a health service in common; | ||
“prescribed” means prescribed in regulations made by the Minister under this Act; | ||
“principal health practitioner”, in relation to a patient, means a health practitioner who has the principal clinical responsibility for the clinical care and treatment of the patient and, in the case of a cancer screening service, means the health practitioner who has the principal clinical responsibility for the cancer screening service; | ||
“relevant person” means in relation to the making of an open disclosure of— | ||
(a) a notifiable incident, a person specified in paragraphs (a) to (f) of section 7 (2), or a person nominated pursuant to section 7 (3), or | ||
(b) a Part 5 review, a person specified in paragraphs (a) to (f) of section 39 (2), or a person nominated pursuant to section 39 (3); | ||
“unintended”, in relation to a death, means a death arising from an unintended event occurring, or arising from, the provision of a health service. | ||
(2) References in this Act to— | ||
(a) “information provided” or “an apology made” at a notifiable incident disclosure meeting or a Part 5 review disclosure meeting, | ||
(b) “additional notifiable information provided”, or “apology made”, at an additional notifiable information meeting, or at an additional Part 5 review meeting, or | ||
(c) information provided in a clarification under section 23 or section 54 , as the case may be, | ||
includes information that is provided, or an apology that is made, orally or in writing. |