Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Civil Liability (Amendment) Act to give protection for open disclosure has not yet been commenced and the regulations might be out next month. Even they were in place, however, according to Dr. Coffey they would not cover this issue because he would not categorise it as a patient safety issue. The memo states that the National Cancer Screening Service and Dr. Jerome Coffey, head of the national cancer control programme, have advised the Department in writing that they do not consider this to be a patient safety incident but rather a reflection of the known limitations of the current screening test. That memo was sent to the Minister on 16 April, only a few short weeks ago. We have had all this discussion on open disclosure, yet when the provisions are enacted, we are going to see that the National Cancer Screening Service will have advised that it would not consider this a patient safety issue and it will not even be covered.