Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is interesting that a similar number of cases has been reported. It does, of course, take time for a brain injury diagnosis of some kind to manifest and for people to become aware of it. I am interested in the risk notification by the hospitals. I do not presume to know about all cases, but in many of them, there are circumstances in which the injury could have been avoided. From the State's perspective, for the protection of its citizens and from a financial perspective, it wants to avoid as many of those cases as possible.

I have two questions, the first of which is around the risk register and NIMS. When something happens, it may not be apparent to the hospital or the parents that a brain injury has occurred. Are hospitals consistently reporting incidents that were risky and concerning, and where they possibly do not know the outcome? How is that translated then to what actually happens in terms of litigation? Let us imagine a difficult birth with questions around it. No one is sure how the child is. The child may or may not be in the neonatal unit. Are the hospitals consistently referring those things to the State Claims Agency in a way that allows the agency to analyse whether the hospitals have been responding correctly, sufficiently or accurately?