Joe Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 57: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children her views on the €160 million bill to settle the 1,300 claims for alleged medical negligence lodged with the State Claims Agency; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15463/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The estimated cost of settling the 1,300 claims notified to the State Claims Agency since the establishment of the clinical indemnity scheme in July 2002 is based on advice received from consulting actuaries appointed by the State Claims Agency and my Department. The estimate of €160 million is the projected cost of settling these claims over the ten years or so that it will take to dispose of them. There is now some evidence to suggest that we are witnessing a decline in the number of claims arising from medical malpractice. This trend has been observed in Ireland and elsewhere.

The sum of €160 million is still a considerable sum of money and several other uses could be found for it within the health services. However this only represents the projected financial cost of compensating patients who have suffered injury as a result of medical error. It does not include the other costs which medical error imposes on the health service such as increased lengths of stay and additional treatment required to deal with the clinical consequences of error. It does not, and cannot, measure the additional pain and suffering endured by the victims of medial error and their families.

We know from international research studies that most medical error is avoidable. In order to understand the nature and causes of the mistakes which occur in hospitals and elsewhere we need to collect and analyse whatever data we can generate on claims and the adverse events which give rise to claims. In establishing the clinical indemnity scheme the Department decided that each health agency covered by the scheme would be provided with access to an IT system for notifying its claims to the State Claims Agency and for recording and analysing its own adverse events. Ireland is one of the first countries in the world to establish such an electronic network for this purpose. It has the potential to make a major contribution to patient safety and thereby reduce the future financial and human cost of medical error.

Another of the initiatives taken in this area is the establishment of the Health Information and Quality Authority. It will have overall responsibility for the promotion of safety and quality in the health service. It will take over responsibility for health service accreditation and for the establishment of standards and promulgation of best practice. We also have approximately 200 clinical risk managers working on improving patient safety in agencies funded by the Health Service Executive.