Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am very glad that we agree that a patient advocacy service is needed and that it should be independent. It is not the case that HIQA's recommendations are ignored, as significant numbers are implemented. That has been the case, particularly in matters around hospital hygiene. The reports show that we now have the lowest MRSA rates in years. For example the rates for Clostridium difficile are falling. We have put an extra €5 million or €6 million into the ambulance service this year in response to HIQA's recommendations. However, not all of HIQA's recommendations can be implemented immediately. Some require spending, for which we do not have the capacity, while others are unlawful. For example, HIQA made a recommendation regarding the ambulance service, the implementation of which would have been unlawful. We would have had to change European law to implement it. It is not the case that HIQA is right about everything. If the Deputy talks to people who run nursing homes or nurses who work on a ward, they will give him chapter and verse. I agree with him, however, that we need to make HIQA's recommendations more enforceable. The way to do that is to give it the power to license hospitals. It would then have an added licensing function, to license hospitals to do X, Y and Z and if hospitals did not implement its recommendations, they would lose their licences. There is already that power in the case of nursing homes and care facilities, where HIQA can go to court to have them deregistered. I want to give it that power in the case of hospitals also. We do not need an extra agency to do this.

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