Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Promised legislation. It goes on, "The Patient Safety Authority will introduce a national licensing system for hospitals, and will oversee the transition of hospitals from the HSE to independent local control".

The reply I received is a masterpiece of penmanship from a system that wants to change track but is hoping people will not spot that. It states that there will be no patient safety authority. For three and a half years I have been asking the Taoiseach about the patient safety authority on the Order of Business and he has assured me that it is coming, it is on the way and so on. The reply states that the Department of Health is not developing any legislative proposals that would establish a patient safety authority on a statutory basis. The HSE intends to establish a patient advocacy agency initially within its own structures.

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