Open disclosure training targets missed

The HSE is failing to reach its open disclosure training targets for staff – including doctors – by a significant margin, the Medical Independent (MI) can report.

Over 6,600 doctors have received HSE training since February 2019.

Just under 56 per cent of doctors have completed training over the last three years (2019-21). This is below the completion rate of 60.7 per cent for all HSE staff for the same period.

However, the HSE training target for open disclosure was 90 per cent over this three-year period.

According to figures provided to MI, some 6,644 consultants and NCHDs attended open disclosure training between February 2019 and the end of last year. Specific data on doctors receiving training was not held before this period.

A HSE spokesperson said “e-learning completions” for 2021 were impacted by the cyberattack, while training had also been affected by Covid-19 during 2020 and 2021.

In 2019, some 1,925 doctors received open disclosure training. The figure rose to 2,284 in 2020 and 2,435 last year. A total of 680 doctors have received training in the first quarter of 2022. If this trend continued 2,720 doctors will receive training this year, according to the HSE.

“The number of staff trained remains steady year-on-year,” the HSE spokesperson told MI.

“Additional resources are being allocated to the team who deliver the training. This will increase the number of staff trained and help support the implementation of the Patient Safety Bill once enacted.”