Northern Ireland Adverse Incident Centre (NIAIC)

The key aim of the Northern Ireland Adverse Incident Centre (NIAIC), part of Health Estates, is to record and investigate reported adverse incidents involving medical devices, non-medical equipment, plant and building items used in Health and Personal Social Services in Northern Ireland and to issue warning notices and guidance to help prevent recurrence and avert patient, staff, client or user injury.

NIAIC has direct links with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) who co-ordinate across the adverse incident centres in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for issues concerning medical device safety. NIAIC also has links with Estates and Facilities Division - Department of Health UK and other bodies for safety issues concerning non-medical equipment, plant and building items.

Because of the importance in open reporting of adverse incidents, part of our work is encouraging a shift to a safety culture in the HPSS, where open reporting and balanced analysis are encouraged in principle and by example. This is in contrast to a blame culture, which encourages people to cover up errors for fear of retribution and act against the identification of the true causes of failure, because they focus heavily on individual actions and largely ignore the role of the underlying systems. With the introduction of effective clinical governance, this means that there is a shared goal between the individual and the organisation to minimise hazards related to the use of medical devices and to ensure that everyone who needs to, is able to use medical devices safely and effectively.