James Breen (Clare, Independent)

The establishment of a safety authority in both the United States and Britain has been welcomed by patients, their families, the health care providers and their insurers. Such authorities operate in a manner similar to that used in aviation, whereby serious incidents and near misses are reported to a central authority, thus helping to identify early trends, epidemics and misdiagnoses throughout the health system. This can reduce potential maltreatment and serious errors at a later stage.

It is imperative that such a system respects the confidentiality and identity of staff, hospitals, health care centres and patients. My constituency office receives large numbers of calls from people on a daily basis that highlight problems they have encountered in hospitals, nursing homes and the health service. Such callers constitute a cross section of hospital patients, visitors and staff. The establishment of such an authority would help to get rid of some of the problems raised. They would be addressed more quickly if staff in particular could avail of a whistleblower facility.

The British patient safety authority produces quarterly national reports that are available for public inspection. Hospitals that report to the authority are named on the authority's website. This increases public confidence in such hospitals. The principle behind such an authority is to find out how problems occurred, rather than who was at fault. In addition to improving patient care, such solution-based systems give rise to better risk management in the health service and consequently, to cheaper insurance premiums for health care providers.

It is time for the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, to come clean and publicly state what the future holds for our hospitals. In County Clare, Government Members publicly praise the allocation of €25 million for the development of Ennis General Hospital and a new CAT scanner was recently announced for the hospital. However, in a meeting last week with county councillors and Deputies from County Monaghan, the Minister stated that 26 hospitals nationwide would have their services downgraded next June, after which only one regional hospital in each area would retain full services. Does that mean that Ennis General Hospital will lose its doctor-led accident and emergency service next June after the general election is out of the way? It is time to put an end to the half truths and misleading statements emanating from the Minister, other Government party Members and the Health Service Executive and put patient welfare at the forefront of our national health care policy.

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