Qld promises full disclosure to public hospital patients

The Qld Government will press ahead with plans to roll out full and open disclosure with patients at all public hospitals following recent sign-off by Australian health ministers.

Queensland Health Minister Stephen Robertson said the state was the most advanced of all states to implement a national standard requiring open and honest communication between clinicians and their patients when something went wrong.

“Queensland has been leading the way since we started piloting open disclosure in major regional and Brisbane hospitals around two years ago,” Mr Robertson said.

“The pilot has worked extremely well and we should have every Queensland Health hospital practising open disclosure by the end of this year.”

Mr Robertson said under the principles of open disclosure, hospitals engage in open communication with patients following an adverse incident about their case. They may also involve any other person of the patient’s choosing.

The discussion would cover an apology, what had happened, why it happened, and what’s being done to prevent it from happening again.

“It’s not only about keeping patients fully informed, it also encourages health professionals to be more open when things go wrong in a hospital so that improvements may be introduced to avoid a repeat. It’s fostering a culture of safety and quality in our health system,” Mr Robertson said.

There is international evidence that formal disclosure as part of a proactive response to serious patient harm can reduce litigation claims by up to 80%.