Dr. Kathleen MacLellan:

I will pick up on a number of the other patient safety issues that have emerged. We would view that the health information and patient safety Bill is complementary to the other legislation. Within Parts 6 and 7, it particularly allows for the mandatory reporting of serious reportable events to an external agency, and that will be the first time that this will be done. Similar to systems we have, in the UK - this is part of the legislation there - and in Scotland, Australia and New Zealand, a particular set of, what we would call, serious reportable events or sentinel events would be reported externally to an external agency. The health information and patient safety Bill provides for that external reporting to HIQA or the Mental Health Commission, as appropriate. It will be the first time that we will have created such mandate in that manner and that will create a flow of information that we have not have had previously to allow for examination of analysis and learning to the system. From the establishment of the patient safety surveillance system, which we will work on through the National Patient Safety Office of the Department, this will one will allow a flow of information that will start to help inform us in terms of patient safety issues and trends happening across the system. That is one element within the health information and patient safety Bill. In terms of the front-line clinicians and the management, it is important to remember that we have an accountability framework within the HSE and one of the core components of that is around quality and safety, so there is an accountability process within the HSE.

I would like to refer to the licensing of hospitals. We would see Part 9, which is around extending HIQA's remit to the private health care sector, as part of a phased approach to regulation across our hospital system.

The licensing legislation we are working on is at an advanced stage and we plan to submit it in a memorandum to government in early 2017. This legislation will provide for licensing of public and private hospitals and designated high risk activities in the community. We established a licensing working group, which has met five times in 2016 and includes representatives of the Health Service Executive at a senior level, private hospitals, HIQA, the chief executive officers of the hospital groups and the forum of regulators. The group has been discussing the capacity of the public and private health care systems to take on the programme of licensing. This will provide an opportunity to make an assessment against a core set of regulations that will be based on the standards for safer better health care. In itself, this should move forward regulation within the health care systems. For the first time, they will be required to have a licence to operate as a private or public hospital. HIQA will be given explicit powers in the legislation to revoke or retain a licence or impose on health service providers improvement requirements and so forth. This is a significant step forward for the health system. The HSE and private health care providers are examining the stage of preparedness they have reached for the introduction of licensing.