Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 44:

In page 16, to delete lines 34 to 36 and substitute the following: “(b) subject to suitable transparency arrangements being in place, be used by the Executive where it considers that its use is necessary for—

(i) a public interest purpose in the area of public and occupational health, including activities for the protection against serious cross-border threats to health and public health surveillance or activities ensuring high levels of quality and safety of health services, including patient safety, and of medicinal products or medical devices,

(ii) the development of policy and regulatory activities in order to improve, promote and protect the health and welfare of the public, including service planning and performance management in the area of health, or

(iii)the purpose of statistics, including national, multi-national and EU level official statistics, within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No. 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009, related to health or care sectors.”.

This section provides that electronic health records may be used by health service providers for the purposes of care and treatment and also be used by the HSE for specified public interest purposes. This provision aligns with the EHDS regulation in providing for the data contained in electronic health records to be used not only for direct care and treatment but also for secondary purposes. As in the published Bill, these specified public interest purposes mirror those contained in Part 4 of the Bill. Clearly setting them out here, however, seeks to clarify that this provision applies across all sectors, public, private and voluntary, regardless of the arrangement entered into within the HSE. We discussed some of this context a little earlier.