Mr. Phelim Quinn:

That was not specifically an outcome of our use of the patient safety tool. We noted that an assessment of a range of indicators from the tool suggested there was not a strong culture of patient safety in the hospital. However, the patient safety assessment tool only provides an assessment at a point in time and should always be used to drive momentum in improving the patient safety culture in an organisation. The assertion that we could not definitively say that services provided in the hospital were safe was made as a result of a range of other findings.

Deputy Regina Doherty asked about the references in the chief medical officer's report to the availability of an emergency department consultant. Our report highlighted the fact that the emergency department consultant was only available for six hours per day, four days per week. It went further to state that the clinical governance arrangements in the emergency department, which covered surgery, medicine and paediatrics, were disparate, ambiguous and ineffective. We had concerns about the safety of emergency department services.