The duty to report hospital occurrences resulting in injuries and risks of injury: The Norwegian system

In Norway a series of complementary systems have been established for the reporting of injuries and accidents occurring during the course of hospital treatment. Alongside a number of obligations to report such matters to an external body, depending on the nature of the event, many hospitals have created their own internal reporting systems. The latter were originally conceived largely as a defence mechanism for the event that the patient should bring legal action against the hospital, but like the various external reporting mechanisms these systems are today increasingly viewed as an instrument for quality assurance, enabling the hospital to benefit from experience.

Although many of the elements are in place, including an increasingly clear view on patients' rights to information, concern has to be expressed at the multiplicity of mechanisms which now exists, some simplification is called for. There is also a need to ensure much greater compliance with these systems if they are to serve their purpose.