James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will address the issues raised by Deputy Kelleher first and in answering the questions raised I will have to defer to some of the team present. The Deputy mentioned the very tragic case of Tania McCabe and the lessons that do not seem to have learned by the rest of the system. Earlier today I was at a national clinical excellence council to discuss the bringing in of new standards - not only the national early warning scheme we have already brought in for all our general hospitals, but a maternal early warning scorecard for our maternity hospitals. There are new standards to be developed around sepsis and around the clinical handover - that is, when nurses and doctors exchange information as shifts change - because that is a time of risk in terms of information being lost. The Deputy asked a specific question and HIQA will be monitoring that area. I have asked it expressly to bear in mind my priorities and those of the Department in terms of patient safety when it is reporting on hospitals. Mr. O'Brien might go into that further. Perhaps it would be more sensible for Dr. Philip Crowley to answer that question when he is responding to other matters.

The Deputy mentioned the figure of €666 million in regard to the budget. I did not take a proper note of what he said. Was he referring to the number of medical cards?