Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 16 February 2023

Committee on Public Petitions

Office of the Ombudsman Annual Report 2021: Office of the Ombudsman

Mr. Ger Deering:

The first thing I should point out - and I know this is not part of the Senator's question - is that we do not deal with clinical judgement. For example, we get complaints sometimes about the treatment somebody received from a particular professional. Complaints about clinical judgement are not complaints that we deal with at the moment. In fact, across the board in our complaints, communication is usually at the heart of them. This often relates to poor communication regarding a procedure that may have been postponed. There are a lot of communication issues and issues with how people are maybe dealt with. However, yes, of course, waiting times are part of the problem as well.