Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

Yes, I agree on both fronts. We are and do put significant energy into reducing and minimising the impacts of clinical incidents, acknowledging, as the Deputy said, that they will always arise. They are very difficult for patients and can also be very difficult for staff and we need staff to be supported as well as to be assisted to make improvements, where they can be made. Not every critical incident or adverse incident can be avoided but some certainly can.

Returning to redress, periodic payment orders is the language used to refer to a process where there is not just a single large lump sum paid but payment is made over time. I understand they have been and are in use. There is work on those orders within the overall courts process. I do not know exactly what it is. That is something the State Claims Agency would keep us briefed on periodically. The notion of moving to a different form of redress payment mechanism and hopefully, over time, to less adversarial methods of getting redress are all in that mix, as I understand it.