Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I will take the last issue first, namely, the case raised by Deputy Michael Noonan. I was not aware of this when I was answering questions last Wednesday, but in fact the patient was contacted and given all the facts before I was aware of the need to establish facts. The authorities had made contact directly with the patient and given him the facts. That remains the position in the vast majority of cases. The issue of patient safety is not just for one organisation. It is not correct to say that HIQA needs my approval or needs to be asked by me to carry out an inquiry. It is totally independent in the exercise of its functions and if it wishes to carry out an inquiry it is free to do so. The current Ombudsman can deal with what could broadly be called administrative errors and does so all the time. The issue of clinical error, however, is a different matter. I do not envisage that could ever be dealt with by another organisation when we have the Medical Council. Under the new legislation that established the recent Medical Council, now with a lay majority, one of the provisions allows for a plenary inquiries committee where patients can complain and have matters inquired into. I know the new council is currently in the process of putting that in place.

As Deputy Reilly knows, mistakes occur in every health system and some of the best doctors make errors. What we are trying to do, especially with cancer care and in other areas, is arrange and configure services in such a way to minimise the capacity to make errors. We should not have had breast cancer services in a hospital like Ennis General Hospital because we did not have the clinical expertise. We could never have it in a hospital with such low volumes of patients or deliver the kind of care to which the late Ms Edel Kelly and Ms Ann Moriarty were entitled. This is why it is so important to reorganise services with patient safety in mind.

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