Dáil debates

Tuesday, 16 December 2014

Health (Amendment) Bill 2014: First Stage

 

5:45 pm

Photo of Fergus O'DowdFergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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I move:

That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Health Act 2007, to allow the Health Information and Quality Authority to investigate any unsolicited communication received by them which expresses concerns about the safety, quality of care and standards of the services being provided by the Executive, a service provider, the registered provider of a designated centre, or the person in charge of a designated centre if other than its registered provider to any resident or residents of designated centres.
This Bill will empower the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, to investigate immediately, should it wish, all unsolicited complaints which it currently receives. At the moment, the law does not allow HIQA to investigate individual complaints. It clearly allows HIQA to investigate and license homes in their generality, but it does not have the power to investigate individual complaints, of which it has received 860 since 2013.

Such complaints can be very serious, and the matters involved can range from physical abuse to sexual abuse to financial abuse to psychological abuse. They are all underlined by one simple issue: people are in fear. Quite often, when a resident in a HSE home or private nursing home sends unsolicited complaints to HIQA, he or she fears being thrown out of the home. Some of the complaints enumerate the fact that the complainant has been given notice or is in fear of being given notice forthwith should he or she continue with the complaint. Staff in these nursing homes, whether they be a person in charge, in some cases, or a nurse or care assistant, fear that they will lose their jobs should their names become known to the people who run the homes. Why is this fear there? It is because it is the home itself that is the investigator of the complaint in a private nursing home. If it is a HSE institution, the HSE investigates itself. This Bill is saying that this is not enough and that we need an independent authority such as HIQA to go in and do that.

If it is a HSE facility and the complaint has been heard but the complainant is not satisfied, he or she can appeal to the Ombudsman. However, if it is a private nursing home - and two-thirds of nursing homes are private - the person has nowhere to go. There is a serious gap in respect of investigative ability, and my Bill will clearly address that. HIQA is the competent and qualified authority in this regard. It has the skills, staff and knowledge, and people trust it time and again. The problem is that HIQA can go into the home but it cannot investigate the individual issue. This is what is crucial, following on from the case of Áras Attracta last week and other issues that have come to my notice since. I am sure other Deputies are now getting some of these complaints as well. We need to vindicate the rights of the most oppressed and the weakest sectors of our community. As Hubert Humphrey said, one judges a society by how it deals with those commencing life as children and those who are in the twilight of life. We need to ensure that nobody in any of our homes or disability centres, public or private, is abused and that there is a competent, independent and qualified authority to go in there and deal with it immediately should it so wish. That is not the case currently, which is why allowing this Bill to proceed to Second Stage is very important.

Photo of Michael KittMichael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Is the Bill opposed?

Question put and agreed to.

Photo of Michael KittMichael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Since this is a Private Members' Bill, Second Stage must, under Standing Orders, be taken in Private Members' time.

Photo of Fergus O'DowdFergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

Question put and agreed to.