Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I support the motion tabled by my colleague, Deputy Reilly, on behalf of the Fine Gael Party. I strongly believe an independent complaints procedure such as a dedicated independent patient safety authority should be established in which people would have confidence and belief in the results of its findings. It would give people who are let down by the health system an opportunity to put their side of the case to people who are not the deliverers of the service. That is an important aspect of this debate.

Hardly a weeks passes that there is not a national media story concerning wrongs committed in general hospitals, maternity hospitals, child care services, cancer care, mental health facilities and the list goes on. Most people I know do not trust the HSE to independently and impartially carry out investigations into these happenings. There are people of the highest integrity and honour in the HSE at all levels, but society now demands that serious cases of bad practice and procedure should not be judged by the suppliers of the service. I noted that most of the Fianna Fáil contributors to the debate tonight believe in that concept. While their arguments were not in favour of Deputy Reilly's proposal, they were certainly not against the concept.

I have noticed down through the years that where a family member dies suddenly in hospital and the family of the deceased genuinely believe something went wrong in the treatment of that family member, they cannot not get an answer to their inquiry concerning the death from the hospital and when they do, say, 18 months later it was backed up with legal jargon that they did not understand. Having regard to what is covered by Deputy Reilly's proposal, I would like an independent authority established, to which ordinary people could go cap in hand and ask it to tell them exactly what happened to their relative in the hospital concerned before he or she died. It is as simple as that. Until we have such authority, people rightly or wrongly will say that something happened to their relative that was not right in that particular hospital.

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