RIDDOR in health and social care

RIDDOR is the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995. These Regulations require employers, the self-employed and those in control of premises to report specified workplace incidents.

This guidance is intended to help clarify how RIDDOR applies to the health and social care sector and whether certain types of incident are reportable.

For general guidance on the requirements of RIDDOR, such as, who should report, how to report and when to report, please visit the HSE RIDDOR website.  

Is my incident reportable?

There is often uncertainty over whether an incident is reportable, particularly when they involve members of the public (eg patients in a hospital or residents in a care home), or when an employee receives a sharps injury or suffers from work-related stress.   

To help provide clarity on this issue, HSE has produced the Health Services Information Sheet HSIS1 - The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995: Guidance for employers in healthcare sector. The information sheet provides clear guidance on how RIDDOR applies to the health and social care sector and provides a number of examples to help you decide whether an incident is reportable or not.

The latest revision HSIS1(rev2) provides an update to RIDDOR that came into force on 6 April 2012. As of this date, the trigger point for reporting ‘lost-time’ accidents to people at work increased from over three days’ to over seven days’ incapacitation (not counting the day on which the accident happened).

However, under EU law, employers and others with responsibilities under RIDDOR must still keep a record of all over-three-day injuries – if the employer keeps an accident book, then this record will be enough.

These Regulations have been amended so that the existing rights of safety representatives to perform their functions, eg carrying out inspections following an over-three-day accident, remain.