Dr. Tony Holohan:

I will give an answer to this. There will be an investigation into those facts and how they might have played out in these cases that might help to elucidate the specifics. That goes to the heart of the question he asked earlier about the advice I gave the previous Minister for Health and now Taoiseach and gave to the current Minister which seems to be counterintuitive. The reality is that it is complex. In the minds of many medical practitioners, what plays into their decisions are fears over creating medical legal risk for themselves. This may not be the reality in terms of genuine risk, but there is a perception there. All too often when harm occurs, instead of embracing the opportunity to sit with patients and explain, sometimes the temptation on the part of practitioners is to circle the wagons, close ranks and not share information. I could give a long list of cases where that has been at the very heart of those practices.

Without going into detail, the purpose ultimately of what is in the Civil Liability (Amendment) Act is to essentially offer protections to doctors and standards on open disclosure, effectively saying that if they do it in the right way, these protections will be offered to them. That allows us to give them reassurance and say that it is a safe and worthwhile thing to do and to encourage it. There is a judgment at the heart of my advice around which is likely to be more effective, because we want to see disclosure happening in every case.

We want to encourage people to do the right thing rather than require them to do something they are unwilling to do. We want doctors to do the right thing. That is a very shortened version of complex advice.