Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In the context of individual health practitioners, Dr. Holohan said that the inclusion of a defence will be incorporated in the drafting of the Bill to distinguish between genuine unintentional acts of omission or commission that can lead to harm and the much rarer acts of wilful neglect or deliberate breaches of acceptable practice. I presume there will be variations. This will be quite conditional because so many variables are at play. The drafting of this part needs a lot of thinking.

Dr. Holohan said the patient safety Bill will provide for mandatory notification of serious patient safety incidents to the appropriate authority, and the State Claims Agency, HIQA and the Mental Health Commission are mentioned. I agree with all of this; it is not a problem. I presume that in some quite limited circumstances there is a possibility the Department should be added to this list.