David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I will be supporting the Bill. Senator Gilroy pointed out that it should have been in place a long time ago. It should not have taken so long for the previous Government to put this in place and it took the current Minister to introduce the Bill, which is a necessary development in the delivery of health services in the State.

Almost all Members have the experience of difficulties caused by the obvious disconnection in the different elements of the health services and the fact we do not have a joined-up approach, which we hope the Bill will implement. There is little co-ordination between the records of patients kept by GPs and other providers of primary care, including the HSE. This also applies to the primary care providers and acute hospitals and providers at secondary and tertiary levels. Within hospitals, we have difficulties because of the absence of a single patient number for each patient and many people have experienced the repeated filling out of patient information forms during the course of one hospital visit, even when the hospital already has the patient information on record.

The purpose of the Bill is one we support, namely, to assign a unique health identifier to each individual to whom health service has been or may be provided. The focus must be kept on that simple and straightforward aim to ensure we get maximum benefit from this change. That is what the Minister is seeking to do so that we can improve and enhance health care delivery as a consequence of the policy being implemented. Concerns have been raised about people's information being given to Departments and that information is used in the best possible way and that people's personal data is protected so that we put prevent potential abuse of what is a very important, but also a very valuable, database of the population of the State. I am sure the Minister has been made aware of concerns, which have been expressed to him. In recent times, we saw US agencies misusing their position in respect of people's information. People have genuine concerns about this. We must also strike a balance and ensure we can provide the best health services. People will not object to being part of this and providing information. They will see the clear logic of having a personal identification number.

This was raised with me when I held a conference on health services in Waterford.

I invited experts such as GPs, consultants in hospitals and people who work in different forms of primary health care delivery. Part of the discussion was around the need to improve and join up services at primary level, as well as acute services. Even at that time, in 2002, we had experts calling for a single patient registration and identification numbering system. It has taken us a long time to get here, which is unfortunate, but the Bill is now before us. The aim of the legislation is very straightforward but it could be very significant in its achievements and the potential improvements for the health care system. That cannot be understated, so I will certainly support the Bill and the Minister in this regard. I hope the Bill will be implemented as quickly as possible, although that may be down to the hospitals and people who work in our health service.