Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 5, line 31, after “Act;” to insert “to amend the Patient Safety (Notifiable Incidents and Open Disclosure) Act 2023;”.

I am pleased to bring forward the Health Information Bill for consideration on Report Stage. Its purpose is to bring forward a number of statutory measures around the consistent sharing and use of health information while ensuring it best serves the individual patient, healthcare practitioners and society as a whole.

However, amendments Nos. 1, 2 and 6, which I understand are related and can be taken together, concern technical amendments to section 68 of the Patient Safety (Notifiable Incidents and Open Disclosure) Act 2023, which I have agreed to carry as part of the Health Information Bill. The Patient Safety (Notifiable Incidents and Open Disclosure) Act 2023 is significant legislation signed into law on 2 May 2023, but section 68 has not yet been commenced due to the need for a technical amendment to an existing provision.

Alongside a number of other provisions, the 2023 Act amends the Health Act 2007 to extend the powers of HIQA. Section 68 provides that a new section be inserted into the 2007 Act to provide the chief inspector with a discretionary power to carry out an independent review of a defined type of serious patient safety incident where some or all of the care of the patient was carried out in a nursing home. Prior to commencement, a query was raised as to whether the provisions of section 68, as it stood at the time, included public nursing homes. It is essential that public nursing homes are included. This was considered by the Department's legal department and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. As the current definition of a relevant designated centre does not include public nursing homes, these amendments are necessary to ensure that public as well as private nursing homes are covered by the provision and therefore to bring the section in question in line with the intent of the Act, which it currently is not.

It is important to note that it is not a new provision but the amendment we are bringing forward today would allow us to then commence the rest at the earliest possible date. I also apologise to the House for the non-textual amendments but there is nothing I can do about that.

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