Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As I stated at the start, we acknowledge this involves a relatively small number of cases. Few as they may be, they are important nonetheless. We do not have a problem with the definition of the patient safety incident per se. The difficulty we are trying to deal with, however, is that it is only the health service provider which will decide whether it is the case. We accept that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the health service provider will be the one that will know this, but the Minister said that if the patient or patient's family becomes aware of something, they can tell the health service provider, and that if the provider then decides it is a patient safety incident, the legislation will offer protection. However, this is missing the key point, namely, that in this scenario we are dealing precisely with an institution that does not accept responsibility and whose tendency is to circle the wagons. It does not preclude the health service provider from making its decisions or from having information referred to it by patients or their families but I am referring to the cases where this does not happen. All the amendment does is make what I propose possible where the patient or his or her family have clear grounds for believing the patient was placed at risk. An example could be where a doctor or nurse fills an intravenous antibiotic bag with penicillin even though the patient is allergic to it. The patient might shout "Stop" before the line goes in. This could be regarded as a patient safety incident even if the doctor or management swore blind it never happened or that, even if it did, there were no reasonable grounds for believing the patient was at risk.

We accept there is a small number of cases but if we are trying to change an embedded culture, we need to put everything into the hands of the patient, where possible. What we propose is not onerous, or anything like it; it is simply catering for the minority of cases in which a patient may have access to information on an incident and the health service provider may be in denial that the person has the opportunity to avail of the protections of this legislation. We do not see it as a big deal at all. It would help to develop trust and a better way of viewing our health service.

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