Open disclosure training hitting 2025 targets

Completion of open disclosure training by medical staff in the first half of this year was “on track” to meet the 2025 target, this newspaper has been told.

According to figures provided to the Medical Independent (MI), from January to June there were 3,192 completions of the mandatory open disclosure e-learning module by medical staff.

The training compliance rate for the mandatory programme reached 20.5 per cent in the first six months of the year. The Executive’s three-year target is 90 per cent, with an annual goal of 30 per cent.

“The completion rate of open disclosure training programmes by medical staff is on track to meet the target for the year,” a HSE spokesperson confirmed.

For this data, the term ‘medical staff’ includes clinicians who identified themselves as consultants, NCHDs, and dental grades.

The HSE spokesperson noted that as there are various training programmes available, individual members of medical staff may have attended more than one training programme and therefore may be counted more than once in this training.

In addition, the spokesperson said that in 2024, there were 7,514 completions of open disclosure training programmes by medical staff. According to the Executive, this demonstrates “a slight increase” from the previous year.

In terms of compliance, the target for medical staff is the same as that for all staff – namely, at least 90 per cent compliance with completing module 1 training within three years. Using the average headcount for medical staff over the three years 2022-2024, the calculated compliance rate was 93 per cent for this grade group by the end of 2024.

In June, the HSE launched its updated open disclosure policy, which replaced the previous 2019 policy.

According to the HSE, the new policy is intended to support those involved in incident management and the open disclosure process by providing clear information about the important elements of the process and what supports are available to them.

As reported in MI last month, former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar stated that the practice of open disclosure is still not “the norm” in Irish healthcare.

Mr Varadkar, a trained GP and former Minister for Health, was speaking at the International Conference on Medical Regulation in Dublin on 4 September.