Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies and doctors for their comments on this. There is an issue which we need to get right across a number of heads. I appreciate and thank Deputy Donnelly for what he is trying to do in his amendment with Deputies Kelly and O'Connell. We are not quite there yet. Deputy O'Connell is entirely correct that we cannot have a situation whereby an obstetrician is responsible for carrying out a procedure that he or she has not certified as appropriate in his or her reasonable opinion because he or she will then take on that responsibility. We need to come up with a mechanism and we will. We are talking to clinicians about this and I am happy to keep this committee briefed as to how the second doctor can take on that responsibility without, as Deputy O'Connell says, causing the clock to start again, which nobody wants to happen. I am confident that we can resolve this. I am conscious that it must be resolved. From an operational point of view, the issue we are discussing applies to other heads too, as we will discuss tomorrow. We need to make sure it is operational and this is the biggest operational issue to get right in the legislation that we have discussed today.

I strongly believe, and think we would all believe, that the law should not impose an obligation on a medical practitioner to carry out a medical procedure based on the opinion of another medical practitioner if he or she does not agree with that opinion. There is a provision about protecting the doctor which we have to get right. Deputies have tried to get us there and they are trying to get us to a good place but we are not quite there yet with the language. We need to consider this under a number of sections. We need to link closely with clinicians who are drawing up the clinical guidelines on this, above and beyond anything else, about what will work, in order that we can get the issue of certification right. There is a practical issue. If a certain obstetrician certifies a patient in a nine to 12 week period in a hospital, there is a three-day wait, the patient comes back and the obstetrician is no longer rostered, is on leave or is sick, there is an issue. I accept there is an operational issue to get right. The Bill as it currently stands does not address it adequately and the amendments do not quite get there either but we can sort it out together. This is an area, above and beyond all others, in which I will ask not just for the important advice of the Attorney General but also of Dr. Boylan and those drawing up the clinical guidelines.