Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 10 March 2022

Select Committee on Health

Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019: Committee Stage

Photo of Róisín ShortallRóisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a couple of points under this section. First, the patient advocacy service is very good but it is under-staffed. I hope the Minister will move quickly to recruit additional staff. The Minister also made the point that it does not work in private nursing homes. Given the extent to which the State depends on private nursing homes and that they are largely funded by State money, is there an intention to extend the remit of the patient advocacy service to private nursing homes?

There is a wider point on the section relating to clinical accountability. Separate to this, there is a recommendation in the context of the regionalisation of the HSE to introduce legally binding clinical accountability where there would be regular reviews. The Minister referred to what happens in other countries. I remember Professor Tom Keane talking about this in relation to his own role in Canada, for example, where at the end of each year there was a kind of performance assessment which he and all other consultants had to undergo. Is it intended work will start on that proposed legislation, which would be part of a piece with this legislation, to ensure it is not only when there are adverse events but that clinical assessment would be carried out on an ongoing basis by the hospital concerned?

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