James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Twomey for raising this critical issue. Patient safety must be at the heart of everything we do in health. It is a priority issue for me and the Government. It was for this reason patient safety was the primary focus of the 2014 national service plan for the HSE. It is also the reason we decided to expedite the patient safety agency through the HSE on an administrative basis, although ultimately, it will be supported by legislation and be independent.

I have listened carefully to what Deputy Twomey had to say, much of which I agree with. The recent report by the Chief Medical Office into the perinatal deaths at Portlaoise hospital indicates there is a huge need to improve the quality and safety of services across the health system. As the Deputy will be aware, HIQA has been asked to undertake a report into the services at Portlaoise hospital, which will follow on from other investigations undertaken by HIQA in recent years. The HIQA report into Tallaght hospital has prompted significant changes to the governance arrangements not alone at Tallaght hospital, but right across our hospital system. Similarly, a HIQA investigation into Galway maternal deaths will have implications for the safety and quality of maternity services nationally.

In formulating proposals for the establishment of a patient safety agency, the Department of Health considered the international evidence and advice that suggests that health care regulation and the broader quality improvement and patient safety agenda are not appropriately situated together within one agency and that the regulatory function should maintain its independence and remain separate. This suggests that the health and social service regulatory and monitoring function should be maintained separately and enhanced within HIQA. The HSE has statutory responsibility for dealing with complaints from patients who are dissatisfied with the service they receive. National and international best practice would suggest that the best way of resolving complaints is to have them dealt with at a local level. Therefore, the vast majority of complaints to the HSE are managed and should be resolved locally. However, we know that this does not always happen. We know that sometimes people do not get satisfaction and that despite taking up matters with hospital complaints officers, they feel no better off.

I would like at this stage to make a few points rather than read the remainder of my script. I do not believe that we could provide that the Medical Council would be answerable to the patient safety agency or HIQA or that HIQA would be answerable to the Medical Council. All of these organisations are regulatory bodies and stand alone. What I would like to see in a patient safety authority is a champion for the patient, an organisation that can support the patient in getting satisfaction in relation to his or her complaint. It is my view and has been my experience as a doctor that the three As apply here. What people want when something goes wrong is an acknowledgement that something went wrong, an apology for it going wrong and an assurance that it will not happen again because things will change. I envisage that the patient safety agency will be such a body. It will be the patient's friend and the go-to-place for patients when issues arise, be that an issue such as the serious issues that arose in Portlaoise hospital or a staff member being rude.

I genuinely believe that the agency will be supportive of patients, improve the quality of care we provide and hugely reduce the amount of money we spend in medical legal litigation. It is a matter of grave concern to me that of the tens of millions of euro we pay out annually in relation to medical legal consequences, one third of it goes to the legal profession. It should be going to the people who have suffered as a consequence of misadventure and negligence and not the legal profession, whom I have nothing against.

The patient safety agency is a critical part of any new health service. Patients need to be empowered. The informed and empowered patient is the safest patient.

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