UNDERREPORTING of things "going wrong" in the health service is "widespread", a watchdog has warned as it emerged £81 million has been paid out in medical negligence claims in two years.
A report by the Northern Ireland auditor Kieran Donnelly on the north’s health and social sector between 2012 and 2014 points to the "blame culture" that prevents frontline staff from reporting errors.
Highlighting the well-documented problems of A&E care in the Northern and Belfast health trusts, the report said it was crucial that all incidents in which there are concerns about treatment are reported to avoid patients being harmed in the future.
Around 83,000 "adverse" incidents are reported to authorities each year but only one per cent of these are classed as Serious Adverse Incidents.
"Changing the culture within the Health and Social Care sector from one of fear to an eagerness to report, explain and learn from what went wrong will only happen through cultural change," Mr Donnelly said.
He added: "In building such a culture, health trusts will also need to provide staff with ongoing support, training and mentorship."
The detailed review, which probed 16 organisations including five health trusts, the Health and Social Care Board and Public Health Agency, also looked at the financial problems plaguing the sector - with only the Belfast health trust breaking even in its budget despite all trusts receiving a join bail-out of £115 million.
Serious delays in hospital waiting time targets are also examined, with Mr Donnelly singling out problems for cancer patients.
While there have been major improvements for breast cancer patients since the report was written, the auditor revealed that only a half of urgent referrals were seen by a consultant within the 14-day target in March last year.
Other areas of concern probed included -
Delays over the rollout of Tranforming Your Care: Slower progress "than anticipated" of the major reform programme, which aims to concentrate care in the community, is outlined. It reveals that Mr Donnelly intends to examine the management of the scheme
Tendering process: More than 2,600 contracts worth £130 million were awarded to firms in the health sector between 2012- 2014 without any competition.
Whistleblowers raised the alarm on a number of contracts, with auditors discovering a "serious lack of control" in the Estates department of the Northern health trust. There was no fraud, but some staff members were disciplined
Private operations carried out on NHS premises: A bill of £2 million remained outstanding in relation to a number of cases
