Almost 86,000 incidents of harm or near misses were reported by hospitals and community healthcare facilities last year, according to new data published this afternoon.
And a bill of €81 million was paid by the State Claims Agency following adverse incidents under the clinical negligence scheme last year.
The data, collected by the agency in collaboration with the Health Service Executive, shows more than 27,000 incidents of slips, trips and falls were among the incidents.
There were also almost 10,000 reports of violence, harassment, aggression or abuse against patients and more than 6,600 mistakes related to medication including incorrect medication or incorrect dosages given.
There were also almost 6,300 treatment incidents reported and there were over 5,600 adverse peri-natal incidents, covering the period around childbirth for both mother and child.
Medication errors were down on the previous year, but treatment mistakes and peri-natal events had increased.
Slips, trips or falls made up over 30 per cent of the events reported and included more than 7,400 incidents of patients falling from beds, cots or chairs. Almost 3,000 falls occurred while patients were moving under the supervision of healthcare staff.
Dr Phillip Crowley, HSE national director of quality and patient safety, said healthcare organisations with a high level of reporting of adverse events had a better patient safety profile than those that report less.
"There is now clear evidence of an enhanced culture of reporting within the HSE and the wider health service," he said.
"Publishing this information is part of our ongoing work to address patient safety issues in an open and transparent way."
