10,400 medicine-related incidents in HSE services in 2025

New figures show there were over 10,400 medication-related incidents or near misses in HSE services last year.

Of these, over 7,150 reached a patient but with no harm, or negligible harm.

Over 2,540 were classified as near misses, meaning they did not reach a patient.

There were 738 cases which resulted in harm.

There were also 732 cases listed as minor or moderate and six were determined to be extreme.

A medication incident is a preventable event which may result in a patient being harmed while medication is in the control of a healthcare professional.

The details are contained in a HSE response to a parliamentary question from Aontú leader, Peadar Tóibín.

State Claims Agency data shows that the most common medication incident was an omitted or delayed medication dose.

The public health service deals with around two million inpatient and day case treatments every year and almost the same number of emergency department cases.

The HSE said that its Patient Safety Strategy includes reducing medication-related harm as one of the common causes of harm, a priority area for safety improvement.

It said that improvements are introduced on a local, regional and national basis in order to reduce the risk of harm with medication.

The HSE said that a Polypharmacy key performance indicator was introduced this year.

It tracks the proportion of people aged 65 years and older prescribed ten or more regular medications, as an indicator of an increased likelihood of potentially inappropriate medication.

The Health Information and Quality Authority conducts inspections in public hospitals to improve patient safety in relation to medication use.