Risks under the Clinical Indemnity Scheme are those arising from the provision of professional medical services. State authorities for the purposes of the Clinical Indemnity Scheme are the HSE and organisations in the voluntary health and social care sector to which the Minister for Health has provided an indemnity in respect of clinical claims.

We advise on risk related to the provision of clinical care. We work with those organisations providing health and social care to help them to better understand their litigation risk profile and target their risk management activities to enhance patient safety and minimise litigation risk. We also engage with other relevant stakeholders on measures which seek to bring about system-wide change.

Clinical risk management programme

Our clinical risk management programme’s emphasis is on engaging with health and social care services with the highest risk profiles and prioritising clinical risk issues that are most likely to lead to significant claims. Each year, we carry out a targeted litigation risk management work programme, working closely with relevant State authorities, in particular the HSE.

Areas of focus

We concentrate on:

• Reviewing, analysing and extracting learning from incident and claims data available on NIMS
• Sharing that learning with State authorities and national stakeholders to inform risk mitigation strategies at local and national level
• Supporting State authorities in clinical risk management, including through engagement visits on risk issues as appropriate
• Identifying risk trends either at local or national level and bringing those to the attention of the relevant State authority
• Providing advice on patient safety
• Providing advice on the development of risk policies, regulations and standards at national level
• Developing, sponsoring and supporting patient safety initiatives
• Delivering education and training programmes

Members of our Clinical Risk Unit represent the State Claims Agency on a number of national groups and committees including the Independent Patient Safety Council, the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee and the National Neonatal Encephalopathy Action Group.

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