The Medical Council’s patient safety strategy will not be completed by the end of June as originally targeted.
A Council spokesperson told the Medical Independent: “We are continuing to develop the strategy to ensure it is comprehensive and informed by appropriate stakeholder engagement. A revised publication timeline has not yet been confirmed.”
The spokesperson said it is engaging with a range of relevant stakeholders on the strategy, including the National Patient Safety Office and the Department of Health.
“Patient safety remains a central consideration in the Medical Council’s ongoing engagement with the Department of Health and across the organisation’s regulatory and strategic work.”
According to the Council’s Business Plan 2026, the strategy aims to improve patient safety and reduce avoidable harm to patients. “It will be data-driven, patient-centred and professionally delivered, and supported by regulation, registration, and education.” A Directors’ oversight group, within the Council, will “ensure that opportunities to improve patient safety across operational and enabling directorates will be identified and enabled”.
Measurable outcomes will be identified from activity and the analysis and triangulation of data from registration, regulation, and education.
In 2025, Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill directed the Council to take a “more proactive role” in the area of patient safety.
Meanwhile, the business plan also commits to developing a “structured complaints–data analysis process”.
One of the priorities in the business plan is to “ensure internal and external learning occurs” from the fitness to practise (FTP) process, said the Council spokesperson.
“This is to be achieved by monitoring complaints, investigations, and FTP trends, and proactively communicating insights internally and externally (training bodies, registrants, schools of medicine, insurers) to enable preventive actions and continuous improvement.”
“To deliver on this objective, the professional standards directorate is currently engaged in a project with the Medical Council’s research team to conduct a qualitative review of findings and issues arising from complaints, investigations, and FTP matters over recent years to identify systemic themes and inform preventative recommendations and action.”
Once the project is complete or part-complete, it is intended that the Medical Council will feed the insights to relevant stakeholders – including training bodies, the HSE, and indemnifiers.
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