Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with much of what the Deputy has said, including in the context of CervicalCheck. I carefully considered the amendment and whether this particular incident could be included as a notifiable event. We looked around the world and could not find any system that includes this specific incident. The rationale is that it is vague. Many of the notifiable incidences are quite binary. They relate to things that clearly happened and it is clear to see what they are. Delayed diagnosis is quite vague. Its inclusion would essentially create an unsupportable administrative burden on the entire system. It could cover anything from relatively minor delays to much more serious ones, including those such as the ones the Deputy referenced. As it stands, the current list of notifiable events is specifically designed to cover the most serious reportable events, that is, those that cause death or serious injury. These notifiable patient safety events set out currently in the Bill are clearly defined and provide clear direction to health service practitioners.

However, as I stated in my opening remarks, I will bring forward on Report Stage an amendment that deals with the incidences we all discussed at great length and that were flagged through everything that happened with CervicalCheck. The advice I have is that it is legally and technically very difficult to do. A significant amount of work has been done to figure out a way to do it and there are ongoing discussions on it. I am seeking to address this issue through an amendment I will bring forward on Report Stage. As regards the specific question of whether we could just have added it to the Schedule, the advice I have is that would not work. It would not be practicable for all the reasons I have laid out.