John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

Those who have made representations to us feel there is an imbalance and people with clinical expertise are not being represented to the extent they ought to be.

A number of other issues have come to our attention, including one regarding confidentiality. I will come back to the way doctors are approached, while the issue of MRSA has already been mentioned. The Minister mentioned education programmes among GPs and in our hospitals.

The over-prescription of antibiotics is a major issue which must be tackled in the context of MRSA. We must have the highest hygiene and cleanliness standards but there is a great inconsistency. Some GPs and doctors in hospitals are conscientious about the issue but others are wholly irresponsible.

The Minister mentioned the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children. When I raised this issue in that forum, a member of a delegation stated that customers will vote with their feet. In other words, if antibiotics are not handed out, people will go to another doctor. How can this be regulated? This gets to the core of the issue. In the context of negligence, behaviour and conduct, surely we should be including issues such as this and indicating that doctors should prescribe in a responsible way.

I do not believe this legislation will cover that, nor do I believe that the programmes spoken about by the Minister will tackle this very serious problem. How many people in hospitals are doing the basics, such as washing hands? We believe that 40% or more of the people working in hospitals could have MRSA but we do not know the number for sure because we have not conducted detailed tests.

With regard to freedom of information, the Lourdes Hospital inquiry report states on page 345:

The Department of Health and Children should introduce legislation to protect clinical governance records and risk management clinical incident report forms from the application of the Freedom of Information Act. Unless these documents are protected from FOI or discovery, they are unlikely to be created and opportunities for learning from mistakes will be lost.

Is that particular recommendation in conflict with section 104 of the legislation? The Minister is texting but perhaps she could make a note of that point.

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