Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak to this Bill, the primary focus of which is patient care and safety. I welcome the amendment to this Bill which will ensure that doctors and other healthcare professionals will have to declare any convictions or criminal sanctions before being allowed to register in the State. This will allow us in Ireland to use findings from disciplinary inquiries carried out in other jurisdictions and countries as evidence in the Irish fitness to practise proceedings.

The important aspect of this Bill is that patient safety is to the fore. For example, all disciplinary sanctions imposed on doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists and other regulated health professionals will be published to ensure the public has access to this information. There is no doubt that the people of this country are looking for transparency right across the board. Sadly, many woman and their families have had to suffer unnecessarily in the recent CervicalCheck scandal. Dr. Gabriel Scally's latest progress report on the CervicalCheck affair has stated that the current open disclosure policy is deeply contradictory and unsatisfactory because it does not compel clinicians to disclose any failings in the care of patients. The HSE's open disclosure policy provides that “patients who experience harm as a result of their health care are communicated with in an open, honest, empathic and timely manner and that an apology which is sincere and meaningful is provided”. We can all see that the open disclosure policy was not applied to the hundreds of women with cervical cancer who for years were not told of an audit that showed they had received incorrect smear test results.

We all know that this was completely unacceptable. I want to know what this Government is going to do to ensure that we never see a scandal like this again. Moreover, what is the Government doing for the women throughout this country who have been affected by the CervicalCheck scandal? One measure that should come from this terrible scandal is the automatic provision of medical cards to all cancer patients as soon as they are diagnosed. The number of people getting diagnosed with cancer is frightening. Very sadly, the rate of cancer diagnosis is increasing. Someone gets a cancer diagnosis every three minutes in Ireland, and by 2020 half of us will get a cancer diagnosis in our lifetime. The Government cannot ignore these statistics anymore. It must start supporting people who have been diagnosed with cancer. Issuing a non-means-tested medical card as soon as a person is diagnosed with cancer would be a start in supporting cancer patients through their battle.

It is also important to mention the impact of Brexit on our health service and our health service professionals. There is a possibility that issues relating to the qualifications of our health professionals could arise after Brexit. When Brexit happens, the directives providing for the mutual recognition of qualifications will apply to the UK as a third country rather than as a full member state. This will mean that the UK will no longer report restrictions on the practise of health professionals, as happens under the current alert system. This is a concern and needs to be addressed in this Bill.

This Bill promises reduced delays in establishing interview panels for consultant posts, which should have a knock-on effect on recruitment. The situation with waiting lists is out of control here in the South. Members will excuse me if I do not hold my breath for this Bill to do much to reduce these waiting lists. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae and I have sent 30 buses to Belfast for cataract procedures, with another four ready to go. Does the Government realise that hundreds of people are forced to go to Belfast for a procedure that takes just 15 minutes? This Government should be ashamed of how badly it has let the people down, especially the elderly. How many more people will we have to carry across to the Border? Will this Government listen and take real and adequate steps to reduce waiting lists here in Ireland?

In the past year the health service has hit the headlines repeatedly for all the wrong reasons. We had two major scandals, the national children’s hospital overrun and the CervicalCheck scandal. We have seen some of the longest waiting lists in the history of the State, which include very young children and elderly people. We have seen hundreds of people travelling across the Border because they are on waiting lists of up to five years. Our nursing staff and ambulance staff have been reduced to strike action. Our health professionals abroad, who want to come home, are hitting obstacle after obstacle. Last week an 82 year old man had to lie on the street in Skibbereen for two hours and 15 minutes because ambulances were tied up at Cork University Hospital. That meant that an ambulance had to come all the way from Cahersiveen to Skibbereen. I invite the Minister of State to imagine this happening to a person of 82 years in his own constituency. It is not good enough. These are the things that people see day to day. This Government needs to wake up and give the people the health service they deserve.

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