Patient safety, national reporting and learning system and the lack of legislation in Portugal

Insufficient Patient Safety is a serious public health problem worldwide. International organizations (World Health Organization and European Union), and scientific communities, over the past two decades, have recommended changes in the safety culture of health care organizations and the behaviour of professionals, along with many other important risk management tools. They advise the implementation of confidential and non-punitive incident and adverse event reporting systems, as a way of learning, preventing and reducing harm to patients. This paper presents an overview of Patient Safety in Portugal, the National Reporting and Learning System, highlighting its ineffectiveness due to the lack of compliance of health care professionals in reporting incidents. The lack of existing law in our country regarding the regulation of the National Reporting and Learning System with legal guarantees of confidentiality and protection of those who notify, is not promoting the effectiveness of the existing system, nor the improvement of Patient Safety in Portugal.