Stephen Donnelly

The Department of Health developed the draft national open disclosure framework to provide a consistent approach to open disclosure across the entirety of the health sector.

The development of the framework was informed by policy recommendations made by the Independent Patient Safety Council in 2021.

Launching the consultation, health minister Stephen Donnelly said: “The government is committed to improving the quality and safety of our health and social care services. Open disclosure is an open, consistent, compassionate and timely approach to communicating with patients and families when something goes wrong with their care.

“We all agree that patients and families have a right to know what happened in the course of their care, why it happened and what action is being taken to reduce the risk of the same incident occurring in the future.”

He added: “While we know the health and social care system has made significant changes to improve communication with patients following patient safety incidents, this framework once finalised, will help to embed a culture of open disclosure by default within the health and social care sector.

“I’m pleased to launch this public consultation on the draft framework and look forward to hearing peoples’ views.”

Submissions and information from the public consultation will be analysed by the National Patient Safety Office in the Department of Health who will compile and publish a consultation report later this year.

The consultation is available online and will run until 30 September 2022.